Another beginning, another ending
by Spica75
Summary: Kurenais history is a bit changed, due to a past event she is a far more proactive person both as a person and a ninja, she gets more involved, taking particular interest first in Hinata then also in Naruto, long before graduation, the world will take notice and the people will not go unchanged.
1. Being summoned is, surprising

This is the first fiction I´ve ever written beyond a 2 page "written in an hour" in school, so I´m a total newbie at this.

The site messed up my formatting quite a lot, I´ll try to fix it and do better with future chapters but I cant promise perfection for a long while yet.

This is fanfiction.

Anyone that believes the material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical help as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

Being summoned is, surprising.

Still wondering whatever might be behind this summon, Yuuhi Kurenai approached the door with it´s ever present guards.  
"Kurenai-san, the Hokage is expecting you." one of the guards said and opened the door for her.  
Now she was getting really thoughtful, _a lone chunin sent in with such haste?_

She really hoped she hadn´t got into trouble, though the guards didnt seem upset, and seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage while she approached his desk neither did he, so that didnt seem likely.

"Kurenai, thank you for coming so quickly, I found myself with a bit of time in between meetings and thought this would be a good time to discuss this rather delicate matter with you; your interest in and support of miss Hinata Hyuuga has been noted and I find myself quite impressed."

_Well that most certainly wasnt what she had expected._

"Oh I almost forgot, cant be discussing great clans without precautions..." the Hokage said, then quickly forming a complex series of hand seals and whispering something, surprising Kurenai for a moment, and when apparently nothing resulted from it, puzzling her further still, even though it was clear what he had done, she didn´t know anything that should require such elaborate security that it needed the additional misdirection he had just provided.

"Now then that we have real privacy, let´s change over to the primary subject I wanted to discuss"  
Handing over a folder he continued "First, I would ask that you look at this report."

"This is quite disturbing" she replied after taking a minute to go over the summary. Of course she knew about the jinchuuriki boy and the common dislike of him, but that it was this bad...  
"Despite the fact that only a small portion of the village actually knows the truth, this much enmity?"

"Sadly that so few does know the truth seems to be part of the problem, those who know and are hostile or prejudiced makes a point out of showing it, and too many who know little or nothing have simply followed their lead without further thought. At least there has been little direct hostility and no open violence that we know of."

"I see..."

"Now, could you give me your analysis on the main section of page 3 and onwards?"

Quickly moving to that page she spent a few more minutes reading it, and getting a good bit further upset, but even more so, she became worried.  
"Far too many coincidences from what I can see, and it goes far beyond what can be explained by the aversion so many have picked up against him, at the same time I find it surprising that he´s still alive with so many _accidents_ happening around him."

"Fortunately he is sturdy and heals well and quickly, still even then it has made me wonder if whoever caused at least some of those incidents didnt actually intend his death, just trying to keep him from getting a decent chance at the academy or perhaps something else, it´s hard to guess when there is so little to go on." the Hokage replied.

"Yes, it does seem that way" then went on "But, this is awful, and your rule on the matter has likely helped to cause much of the resentment that is behind it!" she said unhappily.

"I´m afraid so, but I had not realised how bad it was, or that there seem to be someone willing to go so far beyond mere thoughts and ostracising him."

He gave a hint of an unhappy sigh and then went on "And I made the rule for a very good reason, it is a part of my attempt to keep him alive, as long as he could be kept unknown, or not known as the jinchuuriki at least outside our village, the threats against him were immensely reduced."

"The Hokage cannot stick his big nose too deeply into the life of a mere single orphan without causing suspicion." the unexpected sarcasm from the man almost made Kurenai laugh, but she morphed it into an amused cough instead, getting a slight smile in return from the Hokage.

"I had the investigation behind this report done on the excuse of making certain that having allowed him into the academy was safe, that was the only way I could get any real insight into his life in a safe manner, beyond what I can do openly." he said with a sad sigh.

"So... I can certainly see why you would be concerned, but I´m not certain how I could help any more than you could get from assigning an ANBU or two to keep an eye on things, and I definitely hope you will do something about the atrocious treatment of the boy..." Kurenai´s voice drifted into a not quite unstated question.

"That is what we are in the middle of figuring out, however I am greatly hindered by politics in this matter, which is why I can not in any way order anyone to do anything about it..."

His short pause underlined the already obvious message "What I can do is to ask someone I know is dependable and who has already shown herself quite capable of supporting a child of a troublesome background, even outside of any official request and without any benefit from it."

"But I´m on active duty and getting me reassigned to something only within the village would be extremely obvious." she never even considered saying no to the question not quite asked.

"I believe you will be looking towards taking the jonin exam within a few years?" the Hokage asked with a slight smile.

"I think I will be good enough for it by then yes..." was the slightly drawn out reply as she wondered at the sudden shift of subject.

"I have asked Kakashi to stay in the village and hold an advanced training class for the next halfyear, "

"Kakashi?, teaching?.!"

"As long as you motivate him properly he can be a rather effective teacher actually." he said with a wry smile.

"You managed to motivate HIM enough to agree to teaching, might I ask how you managed such a grand feat, and do you actually expect lazy ass to do it properly?"

"Oh, I just offered him access to the pre-release copies of some series of books he likes, the author always keeps sending advanced copies to me even though he knows I´m not interested, aside from that I also told him to be serious or he might find himself doing a certain D-rank mission endlessly, I´m sure you can figure out which one. I might also have mentioned something about how you were getting close to outperforming him in oh so many areas..."

_Books? oh it couldn´t be... seeing the slight smile on the Hokage, she quickly changed her mind, oh yes it probably was. Why would that author be sending copies of the books to the Hokage though? _

Thinking for a second about the named threat, it only took her a moment to come to the amused conclusion that he referred to all genins greatest horror of a so called _mission_, the never to be damned enough cat Tora, belonging to the wife of the daimyo, always running away(_not surprisingly with that owner, hah!_) and a complete terror to capture, the damn thing certainly lived up to being named "Tiger". It was more dangerous than distressingly many real missions.

She dismissed for now the somewhat disconcerting thought of the books and the more amusing about having Kakashi chasing Tora ever after and focused back on the issue.  
"So, getting an experienced jonin to teach some of his tricks to the upcoming, perhaps even some of the other jonin, to allow them to broaden their skills a bit, yes that is certainly a good idea, has it ever even been done before though?"

"Much too seldom, I´m trying to make it a regular thing, to rotate people with experience out of doing regular missions occasionally and instead have them teach advanced classes for those interested and for those who could use it or simply need it to advance themselves further."

"You would want me to attend then to have me stick around in the village, to allow me to bring in some adult assistance and perhaps a bit of protection from the shadows to the life of Naruto, but what about afterwards? That training certainly wont last as long as he will need someone around."

"Oh I think we can come up with something a little better than that." his smile now much broader, giving Kurenai a hint of... a predator enjoying a satisfactory hunt?  
"As I said earlier, I really do appreciate your mentoring and support for young Hinata, the report mentions that she actually seems to have become quite a friend of Naruto?"

Again she was somewhat taken by surprise at yet another new turn of the Hokage´s words.  
"Ehm, yes I believe it was quite fortunate as they seem to both complement and support each other exceptionally well already, and if they remain this good friends I would strongly recommend that they are allowed to stay together even after the academy, she even brought him with her to some of our training sessions, at an increasing frequency I might add, something she would never have dared merely a year ago."

Flashback around a year

Naruto was seriously doubting that this was a good idea, Hinata had asked him to come with her to the training she had after class, _her sensei is just going to get angry about me intruding and then Hinata will get in trouble as well_ he thought nervously.

When she had realised that he had noone outside of the academy to help him train she had broached the idea and when she found out her teacher would have time for her today, she had very quitely and stubbornly, not trying to argue with him or anything, just quietly waited for him to agree while looking at him with a barely demanding smile and varying degrees of blushing.

He really didn´t want to cause her trouble and he especially didn´t want Hinata to see her _great_ sensei to treat him like so many others in the village, with scorn, rejection or even hatred.

What did he ever to do them anyway!

But now, she was just about dragging him physically with her to the training ground, not giving him any chance to get away without using force, and well, he could never do that, even if he was afraid he would just cause trouble for her.

Reaching the training ground he saw a woman waiting, not quite tall, quite shapely with the sort of well toned muscles an elite gymnast might have with dark fluffy hair down just below her shoulders, turning towards them he saw her strikingly obvious red eyes and that their arrival brought a small smile to her face.

"Hello Hinata, I was just starting to wonder if you wouldn´t be coming today after all."

"S-sorry Kurenai-sensei, I w-wanted to bring m-my friend with m-me so it took a little l-longer."

"Hello there boy, so what´s your name then?"

With more than a little dread Naruto took a moment then "I´m Uzumaki Naruto and I´m going to be the best ninja ever!"

"Huh, so you´re here to help Hinata become the second best ninja ever then?"

Naruto blinked and was stunned for a moment at the reply then with a big grin "Damn right I am!"

Kurenai smiled at the enthusiasm "Well that´s good, Hinata could use someone closer to her own size and skill to practise with, and any friend of hers is always welcome."

"Ok then, we´re going to continue with the Juunan Taiso Ryu today, Hinata start off with the kata´s I showed you last time we trained it ok" turning back to Naruto "meanwhile I´m going to get you started on them as well and then hopefully we can have you sparring a bit later on."

"Juu..., what?" Naruto asked while seeing Hinata already beginning to do some kata that looked rather strange.

"Try following what I do..."

"The Juunan Taiso is a set of movements and fairly simple techniques designed to strengthen the body while also making it flexible and sometimes a bit faster as well, someone however figured out a way to mold those movements into a fighting style, allowing you to train it at the same time as doing the movements is very good for the body, she even managed to get the techniques slightly useful for improving chakra strength and control by adding mental exercises to the moves as well. Though those will come later, today we´re just starting out easily."

While talking she was doing a very slow version of the same exercise Hinata had started with, going through it a couple of times, pointing out mistakes and how to improve, then going on to the next set of movements, and then another, occasionally telling Hinata to change something in her movements.

Naruto concentrated for all he was worth to keep up with her, not even noticing that she didn´t actually shift to the next until he had managed the former correctly at least twice, but he was beyond thrilled, he had never come close to learning anything at such a rapid rate before, totally awesome! That someone was actively trying to train him wasn´t exactly hurting either.

_'Interesting, the boy seems to pick things up exceptionally fast by seeing it done. And it´s about time she managed to make a friend. Heh, I´m not sure I should be surprised or not that it´s the jinchuuriki boy, but they seem to get along surprisingly well. Perhaps it will do some good for him also. Damn, I wish I had twice as much time...'_ Kurenai thought while continuing the lesson, trying to get the two doing as much as possible in parallell.

Present day

"Good, good that was my impression as well."

"It seems however, that despite Hinatas improvement thanks to you, her problems with her clan will not go away, and her training other styles than Jyuuken has actually made it worse, as the pride of the Hyuuga clan has ever so lightly been stepped on, despite how it has clearly benefitted her abilities greatly, both with jyuuken and overall."

Kurenai flinched slightly at hearing that her help had actually caused even more problems, and of course Hinata had said nothing about it, heck she might not even know about it.  
For a moment she wondered if the source of irritation was Hinata´s father, but quickly dismissed that notion, the man was certainly on her top five list both for most annoying people and people most deserving a serious kick in the ass, but as clan head he was also practical enough not to dismiss improvement in his potential heir just because it came from the wrong direction. No matter how much he might -resent- it.

"Also, it is troublesome that your role is unrecognised both on the subject of simple money but more importantly also regarding your own standing."

"I didnt start it for money or fame, and getting better results out of a Hyuuga heiress no matter how unofficial isnt exactly doing anything bad to my reputation." she interjected.  
"Actually I started it because the poor girl needed it so desperately it hurt to look at and because her idiot father, not to forget far too much of the rest of the clan, made me want to break him into very small pieces when I was there to pick her up for academy enrollment, and really, the way that was done it was as if she was already being cast out of the clan altogether, not that being sent off to the academy differs much in their eyes."

"Quite so, but the fact remains that it is a completely informal and even unofficial situation, and sooner or later that will certainly cause either you or the girl problems..."

Kurenai suddenly realised what direction the Sandaime was headed and came as close to panic as she probably could  
"Oh no, no no no, you cant seriously suggest I adopt her or something!.? Her clan would go absolutely crazy and kill me the second they found out! And-"

With a smile at the usually calm and collected kunoichi, the Hokage continued after a slight chuckle  
"I dont think we need to go quite that far, and indeed it would never be accepted anyway, there is a far better solution however and while it´s not very common and especially not for a chuunin, there is the option of a direct apprenticeship."

Kurenai blinked a few times while trying to remember, it certainly wasnt common, the only example of it she currently knew of was how Maito Gai had recently taken an academy student under his overly, even excessively enthusiastic wings, but perhaps...

"But I would still be away on missions far too much to handle a household for more than myself..." her voice trailed off as she thought more about who they were talking about, heh, even if she would be away for a year, Hinata would easily handle whatever was necessary, quite likely better than Kurenai could herself, even if she was dreadfully shy she was still the potential Hyuuga heir with all the training that included and probably already had better ability to handle a household than most adults, any household, be it a castle or a hut in the middle of the forest... that was when she made the connection with the other part of the conversation...

_'He couldnt be suggesting... No?'_ After a few moments of thinking about it she saw the Hokage smiling blissfully at her and knew that '_oh yes, that was exactly what he was suggesting!'_

"You want me to take on BOTH of them as apprentices?"

"I knew you would figure it out quickly, you always were very bright." he said merrily. Then continued more seriously  
"It would mean that you would actually get properly paid for all that training with Hinata, in turn allowing you to train her more seriously, as well as for Naruto, and it would give Naruto at least a degree more of safety and support while we can easily obscure it as part of you wanting to try out teaching a bit more, taking in the -_village stray-_ as part of taking on the troublesome Hyuuga heiress who only seems to get truly better under your special tutelage."

"You´re a VERY devious old man" she said with a resigned tone.

"I believe that is part of the job description?" he said with another slight smile, bringing a chuckle from Kurenai before continuing

"Of course, this could be a dangerous task, many people would very much like to get their hands on someone with the Hyuuga bloodline abilities, and it appears there is a clear streak of malevolence against Naruto even if the degree of it is currently uncertain."

"Also, the only other person that knows all about this whole matter will be Kakashi, as he is one of the ANBU that has supported Naruto previously as well as being one of those that can be trusted with such matters, just make sure you never speak of it unless you´re certain there are no others listening in, and if need be you are authorised to divulge as much as you feel required to either Umino Iruka or Morino Ibiki and I will make sure they know to listen to you, although I´m fairly sure Iruka will figure it out by himself pretty soon..."

"Iruka? mmm, he´s the teacher at the academy, I think I´ve met him a few times with Hinata, seems like a good man..." then the impact of the second name was realised, "Ibiki?"

"Iruka quite likes Naruto and Ibiki is one of few that I know I can trust without reservations while he is also both smart and capable enough not to make a bigger mess of things even when thrown straight into it, especially when it concerns something that I would rather keep in the shadows."

_Ok, guess that that makes sense_, even if she as most others was somewhat creeped out by the head of the interrogation section.  
He did have a very good reputation for integrity though, as well as being intelligent and a decent fighter.  
"One of the ANBU´s you said, which ones are the others and might they be included on that list?"

"Hmm, mostly Kaori Kusaka and Yuugao Uzuki... you might as well add Anko Mitarashi to the list as well since I know she can be trusted even if many foolishly remain unconvinced and the fact that she has already stepped in on Naruto´s behalf a few times, but please avoid informing them unless there is a need for it."

"Hah, those three, they´re all pretty much friends of mine already, Kaori is a close friend even, I very much doubt that they will fail to figure out on their own for long, it´s far better that I tell them the short version and have them ready to assist if needed."

The old man seemed indecisive for a while but in the end relented "Very well, it may indeed be better to have them informed, just keep it all as limited as you can." he asked and got a nod in return.

"So" he continued "i know your current apartment wont be sufficient for this, and you will need something that can easily be made secure enough both for a Hyuuga heiress and someone with unknown enemies, obviously we will make sure to add whatever new place of yours to the ANBU patrol routes, but it would be well if it is in a good location already... How long do you think you will need to find a more suitable house?"

"Mmm, actually that will be easy, I spent some time just a few days ago gawking at a house I was quite sure I couldn´t even begin to consider for _just myself_ for probably at least a decade yet, if ever, and if it´s been sold since then, I know a good estate agent that should be able to find whatever is needed very quickly, though I may need some additional cash up front?"

"Oh that shouldn´t be a problem, I will transfer enough of the coming stipend for Naruto that it should be quite enough for almost anything."

"And what exactly should i live upon when my part of the stipend is already spent, just in case the Hyuuga declines your idea?" the Hokage´s response was simply a very wide smile

"You´re really selfconfident in this it seems..."

"I think I have no reason to worry."

"Just come back and tell me once you have it taken care of."

* * *

A/N 20120923:

Went over it again to try and take care of the worst formatting oddities that still remained. At least now I´ve learned enough of this editor to actually fix them.

Since I posted the first four chapters in a batch, they´re essentially the prologue of the story, my first real notes on the story ended up in ch5. So, while I´m cleaning this chapter up a bit, I´m also taking the opportunity of copying those here and adding to them:

A few things to note in general, for reasons of realism(and a few others that may or may not be apparent later), I´ve raised the academy graduation age by 2 years, Hanabi is also a year older compared to Hinata, and I´ve made genjutsu twopronged by saying outright that it also includes illusions rather than just mindaffecting effects. There´s enough hints in this direction in canon that I think I´m just making it "official" rather than really changing something.

I´ve also in the end figured out a way to handle the somewhat broken canon on technology, but that wont affect much until far later.

One of the original premises of the story is that I don´t want lame characters, nor ones that flip flops between heroic strength and scared incompetence(Sakura and Hinata are the perfect examples of this, at their best they´re outright impressive, while at other times they just stand around playing damsel in distress), and I really do not want characters to RELY on cheap and cheesy powerups or in Naruto´s case, rely on the Kyuubi as a "trumps all" card. So I figured out a reasonably realistic scenario that could give such a result.

While I´m basing myself on canon, the very basics of this story will push it away from canon in some ways at least to some degree. This first "book" of the story, up until where canon starts has become at least twice as long as I first thought, so once I reach the point where the canon anime starts(in another 3-4 chapters(currently at 13)), I plan to start that off as a separate work, so that those who prefers a higher paced story can jump right into that one while this story remains as the "how we got to the starting point" piece for the second "book".


	2. Being summoned is annoying

Being summoned is annoying.

A few weeks later.

Hiashi Hyuuga was currently a quite annoyed man, he was a busy man with a large and quite active clan to handle the affairs of, so having a meeting with the Hokage come up out of nowhere was more than a little disturbing when he didn´t have even the slightest clue what the reason could be.

The guards at the door instantly recognised him of course, a rather tall and strongly built man with long black hair and the Hyuuga clan trademark almost all white eyes with just a hint of lavender where other people had mostly blue, green or brown, and they quietly opened the door and showed him in with respectful bows.

The Hokage welcomed him properly and offered tea, then doing a bit of small talk a few minutes, being ever so gracious, and while somewhat flattering to Hiashi, also getting on his already somewhat pressured nerves as he had several other meetings today, one of which had already had to be delayed.

In the end the Hokage relented and started getting towards the point of the meeting

"I am told that the current Hyuuga heiress is still having trouble living up to the clan standards?" the words shocked Hiashi, _bringing such a clan disgrace up like that!_ Not that it wasnt true, but it was NOT a subject he liked talked about outside the clan.

"She has been improving at least a little over the last year so there may still be hope." he replied a bit too tersely, while trying to think of a way to avoid dragging his clan honour down too much.

"Ah yes indeed she has, that is in fact exactly what I wished to discuss with you."

_what? ? _ That was most certainly not what Hiashi had expected, at best a lighter admonishment to get on and deal with the problem and at worst an attempt by the Hokage to directly interfere with the clan succession, although the clan had already just about decided that the younger daughter Hanabi probably would take over as heir eventually, retaining better safety until then by not being actually named as such until she was old enough to fully defend herself if need be, although not even 7 years old she was already showing herself as a prodigy and essentially untouchable against most non-shinobi opposition and even capable of handling lowend shinobi plenty well enough, still it was a decision he really would not enjoy having made by someone else ahead of the clan.

Stalling his reply became a very noncomittal "I see..."

"Are you aware of the reason for her improvement?" the Hokage asked innocently.

"It seems getting a wider range of instruction has benefitted her more than the traditional specialisation..." was Hiashi´s muted reply, trying to make it as bright a picture as he could.

"Quite so, it seems the young lady training her is a perfect match to have lady Hinata improve rather well; there is however a problem, no actually there are several problems with this situation."

By now Hiashi was no longer sure of anything and simply asked "What might that be?" with a not quite sigh.

"Well, the most obvious one is that we have a chuunin who is using her own time and money to train the heiress of one of Konoha´s largest and richest clans."

That certainly got Hiashi´s undivided attention and very abruptly made him realise how badly that could seem for his clan´s reputation when the Hokage went on

"there´s also the issue that as it is, lady Hinata´s training with Kurenai is unstructured and spotty due to her obligations and need to perform missions as usual, which means that there could likely be more progress if there were not so many obstacles, and while I much doubt that the lady will ever become as skilled in the Jyuuken as her younger sister or even her cousin, my conversation with her tutor tells me that it seems she still has excellent potential for the arts in general and Kurenai believes her to have big, even great potential as a future shinobi of Konoha. But not with the Jyuuken unfortunately."

"I... see... Well obviously I must make sure to pay the woman properly for her dedication and interest in my daughter, despite her missions, that was a bad oversight."

"I think we can do a little better than that my friend." the Hokage interrupted with a friendly smile

"If miss Kurenai were to take lady Hinata on as her apprentice, and the _proper_ salary given was from the start of that I believe we could avoid any potential issues with clan reputation, especially since she will be taking on another apprentice at the same time at my own request."

That got a double blink of surprise from Hiashi

"Apprenticeship? to a chunin?"

"Well she has shown herself to be quite a good teacher already hasn´t she." the Hokage replied, implying that she was better than the multitude of private, very expensive family tutors the Hyuuga clan had.

"That is in fact the very reason I wished to have her try it out, I expect her to be jonin well before lady Hinata graduates from the academy and I expect her promotion to specialist to be quite soon, actually I have already assigned her to the advanced training class that Hatake Kakashi will soon hold, as part of a preparation for her and a several others promotions."

"Training class?" _the Hokage was expecting effective training from Kakashi? Miracles were apparently happening everywhere at the moment._

"Indeed, it is my belief that we must make sure experience is passed on and while Kakashi is still young, he does have much experience and his Sharingan has allowed him to learn many techniques, which means he will be able to teach everyone at least something."

Finally starting to get ahold of himself properly, Hiashi carefully went onwards  
"What about other education, needed as heir of the clan?"

"Oh I´m quite sure that you can figure out a suitable solution, just remember that for an apprenticeship to work, Kurenai´s authority will be the final word, if there´s ever any kind of issue with that, bring it directly to me instead of confronting her, she would rather kill you than not fulfill her duty as teacher properly. She can be a very serious woman."

That got another double blink from Hiashi while the Hokage continued on in a content and decisive tone

"So, I guess it´s settled then, I will inform Kurenai that she can take charge of her new apprentice, shall we say the last day of this week, if that is enough time for you to take care of everything on your end?"

Rather overwhelmed Hiashi tried to think quickly but soon simply nodded and sealed the deal.

"Excellent, lets wish for lady Hinata to reach all of her potential and add even further to the honour of the great Hyuuga clan!"

Not long afterwards a slightly dazed Hiashi Hyuuga left while trying to figure out why he felt like he had been tricked, despite not being able to see anything from either the conversation or the deal that would be negative to his clan.

Having a more capable Hinata was far better than not even if she didnt become as proficient as usual in the Hyuuga clan´s traditional and powerful Jyuuken style, and while an apprenticeship was uncommon it was also prestigious enough even for a potential heiress of a great clan(that he had already once sent her off to the very much not prestigious academy(at least in the eyes of the clan), didn´t even appear in his mind), and the way the Hokage had apparently set matters up already before he had been sent for did make sure that there should be no downside despite his failure to notice doing something as disgraceful as using a commoner as a teacher and then not even paying for the tutelage.

In fact, no matter how he looked at it he could find no real disadvantages.

The Hokage didn´t hold his position for nothing indeed.


	3. Being summoned is NOT scary!

Being summoned is NOT scary

Naruto was... not afraid, nope certainly not that, mmm what´s that long word, apprehensive yes he was apprehensive at suddenly being summoned to meet the Hokage when he couldnt even remember having done any truly major pranks for months, though the old man was nice, he could seriously make you regret your pranks and still be nice about it and Naruto wasn´t really good at dealing with "nice" while being scolded for something, even if being around Hinata since almost from the start of entering the academy 2 years ago he had at least acclimatised slightly to someone being actually nice to him...

That thought brought about a wide smile as he considered himself lucky to have met such a nice, if rather strange girl:

-*A few months after Naruto entered the academy*-

Damned! First, the night before, his tiny kitchen had almost caught fire, then a very irritable cat had somehow managed to get into his apartment and kept him up for hours until very late before he finally managed to throw it out, and ouch those scratches he got was really nasty, that cat had to have been somewhere really bad with those claws, lucky him at least that he had his amazingly tough health, but it still took over an hour extra after he finished cleaning up the small but painful injuries before they stopped hurting, so when the morning came he almost didnt wake up, after which he realised that the problems of the evening before had made him forget that he was supposed to have gone shopping, he was totally out of anything that wouldnt take far too long to get ready, and he was already risking getting to the academy late, and after all the opposition to him being allowed to enter it at all and the way the Hokage had personally intervened on Naruto´s behalf, he couldnt risk not being there when he was supposed to, so no breakfast...

For a big eater like him that was not a great thing.

And now, he also lacked anything remotely resembling lunch, more precisely, he didn´t have anything at all...  
And of course, his best bet to get something, Chouji with his ever present insanely huge apetite who always had plenty of food and snacks with him, just this day he wasn´t there!

After cautiously asking around a bit he realised that his early indecisiveness had made things worse, all the big eaters were also very much FAST eaters and had already finished their meals.

And cute as Sakura is he knew she would very much not be happy being asked, especially not more than well over halfway through her lunch already.  
He really should have just tried asking Iruka-sensei from the start!

"A-ano, N-Naruto-kun?"

Turning around he saw the strange girl with the weird eyes that usually didnt talk much to anyone, first he had thought she was stuck-up from being part of such a famous clan but he soon realised that she was just shy and odd in general, maybe a bit depressed even.

"Hey Hinata, what´s up?" _ehm maybe he should try to be a bit more polite than that he thought while berating himself for being overly familiar AND so casual with the closest thing to a princess that he would probably ever meet._

Except he she didn´t seem to take offense, at least not beyond blushing a bit more, _wow this girl really was the expert at blushing, when you thought she was at her maximum she went on further and turned an even deeper shade of red, quite possibly far beyond the edge of humanly possible._

"M-mm, i, I h-eard you didn´t have any l-lunch with you, s-so w-hat hap-pened?" came the very stuttering reply, though by now Naruto had figured out that this was nothing to be bothered by so he simply replied normally

"Well, you see yesterday my kitchen stove kind´a went crazy and exploded and I just barely managed to keep the whole apartment from catching fire, totally insane you should have seen it to believe it and then there was this big cat that got in and it was like it was posessed or something it took me hours to get it outside and by then it was so late and I was so amazingly tired I just had to sleep so I totally forgot to go shopping and I had like barely anything edible left home at all and then I had trouble getting awake in time and didnt have time to cook something up of the little stuff I had left, and nothing at all I could bring with me for lunch..."

the answer came energetically at very high speed and strangely didn´t actually leave him gasping for breath like a fish out of water and Hinata seemed almost overwhelmed by the long explanation, staying quiet for a little while until she had manage to decipher what he had said.

"You c-can s-share with m-me then i-if you want to?"

"Really? I´d really like that, thanks! You´re the greatest Hinata!" after which he noted that the girl could actually blush even more.

He made sure to bring some extra of his standard cup ramen the next day to repay the kindness, and realising that she really didn´t seem to care at all that he was practically the village pariah, but actually wanted, almost desperately he thought at times, for him to talk with her, he was very happy indeed for the chance of what might be friendship, not that he could really know, having never had an actual friend before.

-*Present day*-

Oh yeah the girl was definitely strange, but now that he was used to it, it had become more something likeable than just _strange_ as he had begun to understand at least a little of why she was so shy, damned, while he was certainly not happy about being an orphan he wasn´t sure he would have wanted to trade it for being born to the _wrong_ family.

He knew she loved her little sister dearly, but aside from her, maan every little thing he had managed to get from her, said or more often from what was left unspoken, that clan had to be crazy!

Well, at least she seemed to have lucked out a little at least, that woman who her family had almost thrown Hinata unto, so they wouldn´t have to go through the dread of actually visiting the academy, full of _peasants_ as it was, she at least seemed to care and had actually used a lot of her spare time just to help Hinata out both with some sparring and... just getting along.

She truly needed it. Between the extreme pressure from her family and her own withdrawn personality, no wonder she was finding it hard to get friends.

But Naruto was sure now at least, she had him as her friend. Probably that Kurenai neesan as well, but he hadn´t met her quite enough yet to be completely sure about that. But it felt very likely considering how nice she was, even letting him take part of Hinata´s training when she had dragged him with her to them, _mmm guess that´s been happening quite a lot lately he realised._ Thinking about it for a moment he realised by now he probably had met her _enough_.

Well, not so much _dragged_ him, except the first time maybe, as ask him so very shyly while blushing even more than average and just refusing to accept anything but a yes, obviously he couldn´t say no then!  
And she was actually nice to him as well! Didn´t seem to be bothered at all that he interfered with her training sessions for Hinata.

Approaching the door to the Hokage´s office, one of the guards gave him an expressively very neutral nod and said "The Hokage is expecting you and will be ready in a few minutes." in the corner of his eye he saw the other guard smirk just very slightly for a moment.

Naruto was rather puzzled, as the guards were usually more open with him, or simply just outright annoyed when he was about to get spoken to about some prank that just happened to end up a bit _larger_ than intended, and he was used to having to wait a long time and now he was _expected_.

The big question was wether this was good or bad. With his usual luck, this was looking really bad.

Shortly after, the door opened and the Hokage himself waved at Naruto to follow him in, and he was smiling, no sigh, no frown, certainly not a hint of anger! Now Naruto was suddenly very much looking forward to whatever the reason behind the visit was.

The Hokage sat down and as he did so, pulled something from a desk drawer, then launching the small package in a lazy arc towards Naruto "Catch, I know you like those so I thought I would sweeten the deal a bit extra once I´m at it, I got an extra large pack so you should have enough to share with your friend as well." catching the packet Naruto looked, _ooh favorite candy, the old man sure knew everyone inside out, a deal, what deal? And he also even knew about Hinata?_

"Thanks a lot ojiisan, these are great and I know Hinata will really appreciate you thinking of her, but I dont remember any deal?" he said while sticking his lower lip out, in something in the middle of looking thoughtful, a frown and just plain weird looking.

"That, is because it was only yesterday that I managed to arrange the last part of it, and I find myself rather pleased with both the effort itself and what I think I can expect from it, and I´m even fairly certain that it is something that you will very much appreciate as well."

_Ok the old man didn´t quite look like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse so he probably wasn´t setting him up for anything, in which case... what on earth could he have come up with to be that pleased with himself and think that I will like it as much?  
_"So ojiisan, what mischief have you been up to this time?" this got a chuckle from the Hokage.

"Well, you see there is a chunin who has been conducting a lot of unofficial training with someone, as it has been on the verge of affecting her ability to take missions there was a distinct need for me to do something about it, however the training was clearly doing the student in question a lot of good while also creating additional friction with her clan, so the whole thing risked becoming a huge mess."

"So how did you solve it, I´m sure you managed somehow as devious as you are." that got a full laugh out of the old man.

"Actually, Kurenai also called me that, and yes I have solved it, by bringing it together to make the training official and the whole thing overall an unofficial test of the old but seldom used system of personal apprenticeship starting at a younger age." by now Naruto had at least partially caught on, the mention of Kurenai and making unofficial training official, that had to be referring to Hinata for sure, sounded like it could be great chance for her to get away a bit more from her crazy family, but how did he fit into it?

"Ehm ojiisan, I think you´re talking about Hinata and if that is so then I think it sounds great, but I cant see what it has to do with me?"

"Ah but to stand as a test, even if unspoken, there needs to be more than a single student, and I also needed an extra student as additional leverage to get Hinata´s father to agree with it more easily and while Kurenai was slightly shocked at the idea of suddenly taking on TWO students on a more permanent basis, when she wasn´t planning to take on even one, she is a very intelligent and good person and she quickly agreed with me that it was a very good idea even if she isnt an experienced teacher nor a jonin quite yet."

While trying to take it all in Naruto jumped in directly on the simple thing  
"Kurenai-neesan is a, no wait she´s Kurenai-sensei now I guess, anyway I think she´s already a great teacher." after a short pause he went on  
"So... you kill a whole flock of birds with one stone?"

"Exactly"  
"Now, I want you to pack up your things and clean up your apartment..."

"What? Why?" Naruto blurted out surprised as he was.

"Because as part of apprenticeship, you will be living with your tutor, and of course her other student." that certainly got Naruto´s attention, and after a moment he realised that it would let Hinata avoid her insane clan much more, and thinking back on the conversation he also realised that he had been used as leverage to work it out with Hinata´s father... It felt strange thinking about not living by himself any more, but Hinata was his friend, of course he would do it if it would help her!

Even if he felt more than a little trepidation about this.  
"You can count on me! You know it!" he said with a big smile.

While it was the reply he had expected, the Hokage sighed and gave a smile, he wanted Naruto to decide to do this willingly from the start, as that would make matters so much easier overall...  
"I´m sure you wont regret it."


	4. Being summoned IS scary!

_Being summoned IS scary!_

Hinata worried, fingers moving around restlessly while she was waiting outside the room her father used for official business, being summoned there was never good, maybe the clan elders had finally tired of all her failures and decided to have her relegated to one of the branch families, with that horrible seal added to her forehead, the very thought made her shiver, she hated that practise, it was just cruel to make the reminder and divider between main and branch families so obvious and so vicious.

At least she had not noticed any of the clan elders that would have to be present for that, but you never could know for sure...

The day before her father had been unexpectedly called to meet with the Hokage and had returned home with an odd look on his face, considering his usual complete lack of expression, whatever the meeting was about it had to have been something very serious.

So, as she didn´t have any problems with the Hokage that she knew of, at least that shouldn´t have anything to do with her, but it was still odd that she got the summon early the next day, and the only official she had seen that was not normal for the daily routine was the main treasurer of the clan, and he really couldn´t have anything to do with her, that would make no sense at all, would it?

She realised that she was falling back into her bad habit of getting excessively nervous and worrying for everything that could happen(but almost certainly would not happen), and gave herself an almost viciously strong mental scolding for it, her training with Kurenai-sensei and her now solid friendship with Naruto, she blushed at the thought that she had actually made herself dare approach him that first time, _he´s so lively, so energetic and enthusiastic and he never gives up..._

Sensei had even called him impressive on just the second time she had managed to get him to come along when she met with Kurenai for training, at least it had been much easier to convince him then, he had almost seemed afraid of it before the first time...

Flash back around a year

"Hello Hinata. Good to see that you decided to come again Naruto." after getting two rather enthusiastic greetings in return she continued

"So, have you practised the moves I showed you?" getting a positive reply from both

"ok, so show them to me, once at slow speed and then twice at full speed" seeing them do the moves it was instantly clear that as she had hoped, they had obviously practised together since last time, needing only some slight corrections, after which she had them redo the moves at full speed again, _not perfect but certainly no major flaws left_ she thought, very pleased at how well they had done despite the fairly short lesson she had given last time, Naruto´s first time.

"Well done both of you, so since I had to leave early last time, it´s time for your sparring match that never happened then, I want to see you in action as well Naruto, and it will also show where Hinata is better than in a match against me. Taijutsu only, no tools, no weapons, no nothing beyond basic close up fighting."

As Kurenai watched them start up a friendly, but still pretty much fullspeed match she soon saw some interesting things, while Hinata was by far the superior fighter, clearly having progressed even further since last time she had tested her, probably thanks to having someone at her own size and age to practise with more often, even though she wasn´t actively using chakra in her Jyuuken strikes, she was still clearly pressured again and again by the boy, and although Hinata was often meek in any interaction with others, she seemed to do fine with Naruto so it was not for any failing on her part that she was pushed back repeatedly, no while Naruto´s fighting style was quite horrible, dreadfully sloppy even, with the occasional correct use of the few moves she had taught him last time that showed up at times, no it was how unpredictable he was that made it hard for Hinata to exploit their severe skill difference. She also noticed how badly that unpredictability was hampered by the moves he mostly used.

Suddenly there was a "Ooow!" from Naruto and almost at the same time from Hinata a horrified "Gaah! I´m sorry Naruto! I´m so so sorry!" almost before they had stood apart Hinata almost jumped over to him and cradled his limply hanging arm "It was so hard to fight against you that I accidentally started using Jyuuken fully and... oh I´m so sorry Naruto, it will probably take at least half an hour before you can use the arm again..." Hinata was looking seriously miserable.

"Heh, so that´s how it feels getting hit by your family style, dont worry about it Hinata, better to find out now than in some real fight. Mmm and I get the chance to try something... that I thought about since you told me about it..."

he concentrated more, there had been very little focus in the academy on training chakra control yet, but he already knew he had lots of it to spare so it wasn´t a big issue, this idea of his was based on large amounts and not control after all, after a long moment he finally managed to perform his little idea and *gah* it hurt like hell for a short moment, making him grimace, then he tried to move his arm again...

And to the great surprise of Hinata and Kurenai, it moved, not normally but he could feel how it was coming back to normal ever so slowly.

"H-how, d-d-did you d-do that!.?" Hinata was definitely freaked out, she had never even heard of anyone without the Byakuugan or some of the good medics that could fix a closed chakra point, and few of them could do it that quickly on themselves.

"Heehee, well you said it was a way to mess up the chakra points, close it down, to the point where it interfered with nearby nerves and muscles? I kinda figured that why shouldn´t it be possible to reopen it by just forcing lots of chakra through the place... Ok so it hurt bad for a moment but it worked, and my control sucks so I´m sure I can improve it so it doesn´t hurt so bad and so it restores functionality faster."

Since Hinata seemed to be somewhere in the middle of being overly surprised and just hanging on to the now partially working arm, Kurenai thought it would be a good time to give her verdict

"Naruto, neat trick with reopening a tenketsu, certainly not seen that before, Hinata, well fought, just dont loose focus on what skills you´re supposed to use, in a real fight it doesn´t matter at all, but in training and some competitions it matters greatly."

She got a wide grin and a mumbled, no longer not really stunned agreement as replies and went on

"Ok, time for what you need to improve, Hinata, your Byakuugan allows almost 360 degree vision, dont worry about trying to look directly at him, just make sure your blind spot is never near where he might attack from and make sure you keep shifting it around so you avoid any bad surprises exploiting it, aside from that you just need to get better at reacting to the unexpected, and I think that´s true outside of fighting as well." she added with a smile, getting a tiny one in return.

"Now Naruto, you managed to use some of those Juunan taiso moves very well a few times, and above all else you managed to do very well at being extremely unpredictable, however, your overall taijutsu is really bad and a large part of that is simply because you mostly use the academy style which is clearly unsuited for you... And... lets say it like this, what do you think of the academy style and what do you think its advantage and disadvantage is?"

"Ehrm... Well, the only other style I ever tried is what you showed me last time, so I wouldn´t know what´s good or bad about it exactly... Uhm, I guess the academy style is too rigid, I cant go from one move to the next right away."

"Good, you actually did manage to raise exactly what I was after, the academy style´s biggest advantage is that because it´s fairly rigid and is based on highly discrete moves, it´s easy to teach and almost anyone can learn it to some degree. That is however also it´s bad point, it´s inflexible and far too easy to read and for anyone who is better suited to another type of style, it can even hurt their ability to fight effectively. A good example is that the academy style actually improves Hinata´s overall ability, while it greatly hinders your. Now, I noticed that you did a good deal better with the Juunan taiso moves, but while I think you can become decent in that, and therefore I will certainly make sure you DO become decent with it, I think there is something better yet for you to take on as your base style, the Raiken, I was going to start teaching it to Hinata as well soon anyway so now you can both learn it and train it together. The Raiken is used by myself mainly as a way to improve my speed, and most likely that will be the main thing Hinata will gain by training it as well, however as a style it has moves for just about everything and above all else, the moves are based on always being fast. It should greatly help your already unpredictable combatstyle and it will likely be a very good foundation for improving you overall. Frankly, I found your ability to stay even that long with the far more skilled and trained Hinata very impressive. Even if she didn´t actually use her style fully except once."

Naruto grinned widely then went thoughtful "Eh, but what about academy teaching? If their style hurts my ability..."

"Wont be a problem, I´ll simply write you a note that you show your primary teacher stating that you´re now working on a non-academy style and will either practise with Hinata or alone and will only otherwise attend the taijutsu teachings as an observer or for sparring. Nearly all the kids that are used to clan-styles do it this way and then just learn as much of the academy style as they like, so it´s nothing unusual. In your case I suggest you avoid the academystyle completely, and if not, only learn it enough to help Hinata with those moves, but preferably not at all. I´ll show you enough of the basics today so you can train on your own until next time Hinata drags you with her." that got a laugh from Naruto and a blush from Hinata, joining her own smile.

"Oh, but if you put everything into speed, wont the attacks get weak?"

"Wont be a problem, yes the overall power in Raiken attacks is a bit lower, but not hugely so and more importantly, if you can hit with twice as many attacks it will rarely matter if each hit does a bit less damage. Either way, considering how poorly suited the academy style is for you, I expect your damage potential will actually rather improve a lot with the Raiken, despite the shift in focus. Also, you will have a bit more power in the Juunan Taiso moves I will teach you in paralell... Mmm, Hinata certainly favours learning many styles, but I dont think that will suit you... Perhaps... I was considering teaching the Ten no Mori more or less in paralell with the Raiken, it feels a bit counterintuitive for someone with poor chakracontrol but I think some of its moves may be suitable to provide you with some more powerful attacks, not to mention that it should really help your chakra control..." _yes... Raiken as the foundation with most of the Juunan Taiso added but not bothering to perfect it, with some suitable parts of the Ten no Mori added... yes, that should add up to an overall very fast and flexible style but still having plenty of sting in it._

-*Present day*-

All that, both training and having at least two persons she could actually call friends, had helped her worry less, much less, it was still far too much even for an average person and by Hyuuga clan standards she was a complete nervous wreck just waiting to fail them yet again.

After a few more minutes she finally managed to take a deep breath and at least stop worrying about the most outrageous things...

What was taking father so long! Her presence had been requested now and yet now she must have waited almost half an hour, her father was known for many things, both good and bad ones, but being tardy or forgetting that someone he had called for was waiting, that was certainly not one of those things!

Could she be in so much trouble that he had to calm himself down before even seeing her?

Hinata worried...

Finally her father called for her to enter and she was almost shocked to hear that in fact his tone was neither cold nor angry, he sounded more... she couldn´t even come up with a suitable definition, and that made her worry more again while softly entering the room and sitting down.

"I belive that you have improved somewhat from your training with the chunin Yuuhi Kurenai, and despite her complete inability to train you with and lack of knowledge about Jyuuken, you have still improved somewhat in that as well while training other things, would you agree with my asessment daughter?"

Hinata was almost stunned for a moment and then hurriedly replied, though still very carefully to try to avoid stuttering as she knew that would only cause trouble

"Yes father I w-would agree." hoping that he would not forbid her to keep training with Kurenai-sensei, even if it was sporadic because both had schedules that could not be moved quite so easily, even if it was unstructured and so far mostly just mere basics it still seemed to have a surprisingly large effect, but best of all was the chance to just be around Kurenai, it calmed her and allowed her to focus so much better.

"So far the training has been mostly the basics of the t-taijutsu styles she practises combined with exercises for speed, strength and stamina as well as balance, stealth and chakra abilities, and for some reason her training style seems to work better for me, even to the point where it improves my skill with Jyuuken."

The first part of her answer, Hiashi was expecting, the later part almost shocked him, not because it might be taken as slightly uppity, but because it was probably the first time he had seen her go beyond what was requested or required in such a situation. A moment later he caught up on part of what she had said

"Taijutsu styles? She makes use of more than one style then?"

"Yes, she is fairly skilled with at least 3 and knows several others to a lesser but still proficient degree, I do not know how many, though I think I have managed to separate out at least half a dozen others based on the moves she uses, and I much doubt she has used all she knows in my presence..." Hinata tipped her head slightly while thinking for a moment, then added

"I think s-she will eventually create her own hybrid style, she already switches between them almost as if they were discrete moves of the same style."

That statement instantly made Hiashi feel better about the whole thing, a new style or even parts of one could always be of advantage if brought into the clan, especially if it could be made to work together with the Jyuuken, and since Hinata´s training obviously helped her skill in that, it should be at least possible to some degree.

He also realised that perhaps that was the reason his failure of a daughter could learn from this chunin what she could not learn from the most superior Jyuuken teachers, teachers who would probably defeat this Kurenai with one hand tied behind their back, and quite possibly still win easily considering how her best skill was supposedly genjutsu, something the Hyuuga Byakugan eyes made halfway worthless, but being able to both keep them separate as well as mold together over a halfdozen taijutsu styles meant that she was both skilled and likely flexible in her use of them, meaning that she could probably overcome any problems of learning in the student simply by adapting her styles as suitable for the moment.

Hiashi Hyuuga liked the clan specialisation in Jyuuken, it had after all served his clan exceptionally well for a very long time, but now he found himself considering if perhaps he should find a few of the more flexible clan members and see if he could find someone, or a few someone, highly skilled in their own, other styles and see if parts could perhaps be integrated into the overall Jyuuken, fighting styles did tend to progress over time after all.

He knew very well that there were some situations where it was almost useless, but since those situations were extremely rare, the issue was more that of gaining a broader style rather than using it as precautions against those few situations.

Seeing her father get thoughtful and silent for such a long time, Hinata was more than a little surprised and wondered whatever prompted such introspection, as it apparently was her words that had caused it, finally he spoke up.

"It is my duty as leader of the clan to see to that any potential heir, no matter how useless, receives the best possible training they can get and for you that is obviously with miss Kurenai. The current situation being untenable, I consulted with the Hokage and he did have a quite suitable solution.-"

_Consulted with, he was summoned_ Hinata thought confused, but being a rather intelligent child, already trained in politics, she quickly realised, _the Hokage set this up!_

"-There is the old custom of apprenticeship, and it seems the Hokage had been considering greater use of this for children who might do better with additional, more personal attention, he had indeed already asked miss Kurenai to take on another child as her apprentice, considering her informal training of you to show that she was good at it. And while she is merely a chuunin, the Hokage tells me that she will likely improve on that matter in the not too distant future."

"You will begin your apprenticeship at the end of the week, I expect you to be ready to move in with miss Kurenai by then, obviously there are still many things that she cannot teach you so I expect you to work out a schedule with your teachers of the clan and miss Kurenai that allows you to learn the matters required of someone who might be the heir of the clan."

"Move in?.!" Hinata blurted out very surprised.

"Yes it is traditional for these kind of arrangements, oh and if there are ever any conflicts over training or scheduling, miss Kurenai has the final say." he added as if he was content with it, while he found the Hokages warning overly melodramatic and unreal he wasn´t going to ignore it merely to assert a bit of control he really did not need anyway.

"If it troubles you too greatly I expect I can work out some other arrangement?" he said with the bad old tone that almost shouted at her _if you´re too weak too handle it we will have to make do in some other way_.

She quickly responded "No, no as long as I can find some time to be with Hanabi, it will be fine, and I´m sure I can work something out with Kurenai-sensei about that." she was quite elated about the prospect of getting away almost completely from the crushing weight of the Hyuuga mansion and its strict traditions, except for her little sister at least. But as she had said, she was certain she could make it work somehow, she knew Kurenai would not be unreasonable, she never was.

Meanwhile her father thought about the fact that Hinata was already calling Kurenai _sensei_, and did it with the ease of long practise, apparently he had completely failed in noticing just how much contact there had been with the woman. _Oh well, at least there might be some chance of it working out for the good of the clan now. If his daughter failed, it could be blamed on her new tutor, if she managed to become respectable enough that she could hold the position of clan head then the elders would have two decent choices to select the next clan leader from._

"I WILL improve, that I promise you father!", Hiashi was slightly taken aback by the actual strength behind the words and was given a slight bit more hope that perhaps some day his eldest might become truly worthy of her inheritance, just maybe.


	5. Sneak Peek

Sneak peek

Kakashi caused quite a stir among those gathered when he appeared, as there was almost a minute left until he was supposed to start his training.

There was twenty and a few, mostly chuunin and a few specialists and jonin, and his timely arrival had caused a few coins to change hands in two cases, to the delight of those who had dared to bet that mr _always late_ would actually not be late for something he was leading.

"Yo, anyone who doesn´t already know me? Good then I can skip the introduction that I didn´t bother to think of... Right then, Hokage came up with this good idea that we need to spread knowledge and experience around more, so that´s what we´re going to do. I´ll be teaching you all a few new techniques, teach you how to use some techniques in new ways, then we´re going to pick apart at least one bad situation that each of you have ended up in to see if we can figure out how it could have been handled better, and remember that this is a constant that always remains, no matter how good you are there´s always something you could have done better in every single situation, we´re also going to borrow training ground 68 a few times to sharpen up your mobility and stealth, and my lovely assistant, Konoha´s own genjutsu mistress is going to help me improve your taijutsu and genjutsu as well as teaching you a few basic exercises for improving your chakra and control of it."

He finished his speech with what was probably a bright smile, mostly hidden by his mask, aimed at Kurenai who had seated herself up front and was currently looking rather annoyed.

"It might just have been an advantage if you had actually bothered to tell me about that in advance you know?" she asked with a clear hint of iciness.

"But I just did, your part of the training wont even start for two weeks, all the time in the world right? Actually it wasn´t until yesterday that it was cleared." Kakashi was looking slightly nervous.

"Ah, and since we we´re going to meet today you saw no reason to tell me yesterday..." Kurenai´s tone was flat as she replied with a raised eyebrow.

From further back could be heard a mumbled "ooh he´s in trouble now..." causing several smothered laughs and chuckles.

"Aah, I´m sure we can come to a reasonable agreement..."

"Oh I´m sure we can, you owe me one for this." Kurenai said ominously.

-*Later*-

A few hours later they had just ended and most had or were about to leave, Kakashi had just moved off to the side with Kurenai "Sorry about surprising you with extra work like that earlier, seems it was the old man having fun at our expense again."

"Oh don´t worry about it, but you still owe me one. He´s getting old."

"Hmm? He´s not _that_ old..."

"No I mean that he feels too old for the position, he´s feeling old and bored."

"He´s still doing an excellent job."

"Oh no doubt there, but haven´t you noticed how he´s doing more of these little pranks of his as time goes on? I think he´s feeling far overdue for retirement."

"Well, he already did retire once, and that didn´t exactly end well even if it was no fault of his, I bet he feels the weight of that."

"Probably."

"About that, did you manage to find Tsunade?"

"Wasn´t easy but yes I did. She has Shizune and that girl she picked up not long before she left with her, and really, officially Shizune is noted as a jonin and last time I tracked her down the other girl was raised to chunin in the official paperwork, now however, I got the feeling the girl might actually have outrun Shizune. Still, they didn´t ask to have her status modified so we will just have to wait and see. She certainly handled the test I gave her earlier for chuunin status with ease."

"Did she have anything interesting for you this time?"

"I know you disagree-"

Kakashi held up a hand "No, I disagreed originally when you suggested it, I´ve changed my mind since then, even if it looks like a waste of money to keep her listed even as semi-active, Konoha still gets the occasional tidbits out of it and more importantly, we maintain an active relation and connection to her. So what did you get?"

"So you figured that out at last." Kurenai didn´t smirk at all, Kakashi went *ehrm* "Anyway, we got a new variation on a medical seal, a couple of variants on techniques and quite a bit of information, mostly from rumours but not just. Seems a new, independent group is really beginning to make a name for itself."

"Mmm, something we need to worry about?"

"Currently, probably not, but it deserves keeping an eye on."

"Mmm I´ll look into it later, so what do you think, can she be persuaded into taking over the post of Hokage?"

"Eventually yes, but in the near future?" she shook her head slowly "Still too many bad memories she really would prefer not having to deal with, and I can certainly understand her. At least she liked how I had continued to push for some of her ideas even if in somewhat modified shape."

"The one about getting more people the basics of medic training?"

"Yes. Her idea of adding an actual medic-nin to each team had much merit, but fully trained medics are not quite that easy to train and it would also cut heavily into the number of teams we could field, but getting basic training to those that can handle it is quite a different matter... I have managed to get positive response from at least two medic´s I know, both would be willing to teach if we can take care of their scheduling, and now that I´m part of the teaching team here, I suggest we start off by spending a little of the time letting those two loose on our group, last 4 weeks perhaps?"

"Mmm, might be a good idea, I wouldn´t mind learning a little myself either, even if it´s just the bare minimum it´s still better than nothing when you´re in a bad spot."

-*Elsewhere*-

2 persons approached a third, seated at a small table, after quiet nods in greetings the man and woman sat down slowly, the woman asking the previously seated man "You have heard about the demonbrat?"

"Yes."

"Is it true then? We have been unable to verify it despite our positions."

"Unfortunately yes, it´s true. It seems our plans to use him will become problematic. I´m considering giving up on him, he was never truly central to our plans after all."

The other man jerked up "What? Just because of the Yuuhi-girl? Any one of us could easily get rid of her, and that is also what I recommend that we do. He may not be an important part of our planning, but lacking the chaos a jinchuuriki can cause, regardless if he is actively under our control or merely influenced or agitated, that is not something we can easily get through other means."

The first man replied even more calmly "First of all while yes either of us should in theory be able to defeat the Yuuhi-girl with ease, the problem is her obsession with training everything and keeping that training up all the time, I have reason to believe she has improved considerably since the last time we had a reliable estimate of her skills, more importantly I have almost no information on what she has practised the last few years. I also have reasons to believe that the Sarutobi-boy is actually keeping her ranking down artificially, trying to hide her from too much attention, I believe he is actually thinking of her as a potential candidate for future hokage."

"What?" the woman almost shouted.

"Calm down, if he says so I guess we may have missed out on too much, especially if Hiruzen is actively keeping information back about her. While we formally have access to most, we can´t go looking in every little document without making it seem suspicious after all. He can get much freer access."

The woman looked at him for moment, frowned "Very well, we always knew she is one of the best of her generation after all. But I would have preferred sticking with the plan, even if it meant having to get rid of a skilled chunin."

"And second, I may have an alternative option for us." that had the visitors interest instantly "My contacts with the malcontents in Iwa has been going very well indeed."

The woman raised an eyebrow in question "And you are not being set up?"

"No, I´ve made certain of that. It simply seems there is far more unhappiness about the current Tsuchikage than we thought, his refusal to renew the war against Konoha to get revenge for the losses they took from the Yondaime, that has created a severe rift over the last decade. His occasional use of the Akatsuki mercenaries to make sure they can handle additional contracts has exaggerated things surprisingly much, hurting their already battered pride badly. I have been able to confirm most of this through contacts with our own runaway."

"I still do not like that we´re using him."

"None of us do, but he is ever so very useful isn´t he?" the visitors frowned but still nodded.

"Hiruzen is making Konoha weak and taking it in a direction that is intolerable, even dealing with the traitor is better than letting it go on unopposed."

-*At the shinobi academy*-

Outside the academy, it had become a common sight to see Naruto and Hinata sharing lunch, the latter usually doing more of the sharing part, it was no longer a big deal. Today though, Naruto was talking and flailing about excitedly while Hinata seemed to be smiling a lot more than usual.

Kiba simply had to investigate "Oi Naruto, whats the big fuzz?"

"Huh, oh it´s just so totally cool I´m going to be apprenticed to Yuuhi-chan by the end of the week. You know like that older Lee guy is to Gai."

"Hehe guess they figured you needed extra teaching dead last? Or did they just try to dump you from the academy?" Kiba wasn´t trying to be nasty but the effect on Naruto was still obvious.

"H-he´s not the o-only one, she´s going to t-take me on as well." Hinata added as an indirect defence with an offended tone.

Kiba was instantly apologetic "Sorry, sorry! No offense meant. I think it´s rather cool really, but why both of you to the same?"

"She´s the chunin that helped out Hinata and then me with training..." Naruto didn´t want to get too deeply into that or what the Hokage had said.

"Oh right, she´s the one that got you skipping the academy taijutsu. Well you´re improving at least so I guess it might work out. Maybe next year you wont be dead last anymore." Kiba ended with a grin.

"You betcha I wont, believe it!" Naruto´s comeback ended with an even bigger grin.

-*Next day*-

Kurenai meeting Iruka in his office.

"So the rumours were true then?"

"Yes, by the end of the week both Naruto and Hinata will officially be my apprentices, and this" she handed over a small bundle of papers "is the paperwork the academy needs."

Iruka looked it over "Huh, so you´re actually taking over as guardian for both, can´t say I expected that, though now that I think about it, it makes sense I guess. Hmm... You´re listed as a part time teacher for the academy now also?"

"Whenever I´m not doing a mission I will be here to handle their taijutsu practise and possibly a few other things as well, I´m still working out what might be best. But at least taijutsu, Naruto really needed something other than the academystyle and Hinata simply needs everything I can throw at her."

"I heard about that, but Hinata has never been bad so...?"

"I´ve found that she thrives on learning, on learning new ways to stretch her limits, even her Jyuuken has improved merely from learning the academy style better, not what you would expect is it..."

"Mmm, not really no. I guess I should apologize though for how poorly Naruto has done with it."

"I think someone may have sabotaged his practise, but aside from that, it really does not suit him and I doubt even an expert like you focusing completely on training him would make him that much better with it."

Iruka frowned at that but nodded "I wouldn´t exactly call myself an expert but I take your point, and though I cant say I´ve seen any instructor actively doing something I cant rule it out considering his, heritage... So what about when you´re not here then?"

"Then they will have to practise on their own or with each other, I´ll try to make sure they always have something to do for those times."

"Good." Iruka thought for a moment "How about I put them practicing the Juunan taiso with Ryu, I believe I heard that you were teaching both of them that style?"

"Ryu?"

Pointing out the window where the class was currently busy training with ranged weapons "Ryu Satake, the big, muscular boy there with short black hair, I´m not so sure he will be able to become a good shinobi, but he´s probably the best at taijutsu in the class for now, and he uses the academy style and the Juunan taiso, he´s also showing some hints of becoming a decent instructor, if I told him to stick with the correct style with Naruto and Hinata, that might work."

"Sounds fine if he can stick to it."

"I must say I´m surprised that Hiashi agreed with all this?"

Kurenai smiled slightly "He doesn´t know yet who the other apprentice is..." gettin a bark of laughter from Iruka.

* * *

A/N

ShephardsShadow, thank you and I hope you will like where im planning for this to go, you get the praise for being my first reviewer ever. ^_^

A few things to note in general, for reasons of realism(and a few others that may or may not be apparent later), I´ve raised the academy graduation age by 2 years, Hanabi is also a year older compared to Hinata, and I´ve made genjutsu twopronged by saying outright that it also includes illusions rather than just mindaffecting effects. There´s enough hints this direction in canon that I think I´m just making it "official" rather than really changing something.

One of the original premises of the story is that I don´t want lame characters, nor ones that flip flops between heroic strength and scared incompetence(Sakura and Hinata are the perfect examples of this), and I really do not want characters to RELY on cheap and cheesy powerups or in Naruto´s case, rely on the Kyuubi as a "trumps all" card. So I figured out a reasonably realistic scenario that could give such a result.

Oh, and my writing is both irregular and non-linear so I can give zero promise about when there will be updates. I already have 10 times more written than published so I have plenty of story coming at least.

And thanks for the favorites, alerts and review, it certainly makes one try harder to get things written. I wasn´t expecting to post this chapter for a while longer.


	6. Moving

Guess what? I still do not own Naruto.

This is fanfiction.  
Anyone that believes the material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical help as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

* * *

-*Moving*-

Hinata was excited, she had spent the last two days organising her things that she would take with her to her... new home! The only thing that bothered her had been explaining it to her almost teary eyed little sister, that she would only be halfway across the village and they would be seeing each other more days than not, the 4 year younger Hanabi had still just a few minutes ago said goodbye as if they wouldnt meet for years.

"Come daughter, it´s time to leave" her father´s sudden appearance startled her a bit, but at least she didnt really jump from it... Just barely.

She picked up the pack she had made for herself and looked back at her room and felt... mostly relief at leaving it behind, with just the memories of her now long dead mother together with her in the room being the only thing she would miss. Though those she would miss all too much.

Then quickly moving out to the front of the house where a pair of servants had loaded up with the rest of the items she was bringing with her, and a pair of guards from the branch houses waited, carrying a few small items that had apparently not fit with the rest, she knew there would be at least another two, probably four, guards nearby but hidden. The head of the clan and the heiress, at least officially, was not something that just went out for a leisurely stroll in the park, the fact that she would escape much of that attention was something else she would relish.

She thought it was odd how it apparently seemed no coverage was needed while she was at the academy.

The closer guard, a young woman with short black hair, gave a her a friendly smile that she quickly returned, Keiko had always been kind to her even when she failed and had always tried to be around when needed.

While they were walking across the village she wondered about the house Kurenai had said she had bought, she had seemed very happy about it. Saying it was just perfect now that she would have someone to share it with.

She didn´t realise at first when they had reached the house, much bigger than she had expected, the former home of one of the minor clans perhaps she thought wonderingly, then noted that her father seemed to have been more than a little surprised at the size as well.

Kurenai meeting them at the door, greeted Hiashi respectfully then with a smile "Welcome home Hinata." getting a blush and a stuttered thanks from Hinata and a smile from Keiko who went on to give a slight nod to Kurenai, aknowledging relieved acceptance.

The packs were dropped off, then Hiashi had to ask "I was somewhat surprised at the quality of this estate, it seems rather large for a mere chunin?"

"I tend to be very successful on missions and I´m skilled enough that they tend to give me more problematic and thereby also better paying missions. I´ve also brought in a few missing-nin bounties, those of A or S rank tend to pay very well. Aside from that, we wont be needing any servants and the stipends for two apprentices, all combined, money wont be a problem as long as I continue to accept some missions. Obviously leaving me far more time to teach." actually the money the Hyuuga paid would alone be enough to pay for the estate as well as living for her and both kids, in a large part thanks to the special deals she had managed with the Hokage, but Hinata´s stuck up father didn´t need to know that.

"I see. I noticed that there is noone else here?"

"It would be far too chaotic to have them both move in on the same day, we will go help my other apprentice move in tomorrow."

"I assume one reason for the large property is security?"

"Yes, I have worked with a couple of friends in ANBU to set up traps and defences and the size of the area makes it far easier to allow for depth of security and still retain plenty of space to live on, I´m sure you can see much of it if you try, but I doubt even you can see most of it."

"Well then, that´s good, now..." Hiashi´s appearance somehow became even stiffer and more formal "i hereby aknowledge you Yuuhi Kurenai-san as my daughter´s, Hyuuga Hinata, master. She is now your responsibility, I expect her to become a skilled shinobi and acceptable as heiress of the Hyuuga clan."

Kurenai nodded receipt "I think she will eventually surprise you, she has much that needs work and while her Jyuuken is a bit weak and I´m told that her ability with Byakuugan is somewhat limited, I see much talent and potential in her, I fully expect her to be among the first of her age to become jonin, and while I cannot easily determine what makes a good clan head" _anything NOT resembling you too closely_ she thought acidly without showing any hint of it "she will be a respectably able leader when her apprenticeship is over." interestingly, Hiashi had not noticed that there had been no time limit for the apprenticeship set... She was rather pleased about having avoided stating such.

Hiashi soon excused himself and left with his guards and servants, Kurenai clearly noticing how the servants gave a hurried nod to Hinata and the guard that clearly cared about her saying a short goodbye, while the father and the other guard didn´t even give her a look...

_Definitely better off away from those!_

Having Hinata choose which room she wanted turned out to be considerably less simple than she would ever have thought, apparently the girl had never been allowed a choice in such trivial matters, she sighed at the obvious problem of a clan heiress not even allowed to pick her own room, furniture or clothes...

_No wonder the girl became messed up when trained in handling a great clan as well as a household to perfection while not being allowed even a basic choice in personal matters._

That had been another surprise, first that Hinata seemed to have little clothes with her, except when asked she said it was all of it, _the daughter of the richest clan head of the village has a much smaller warderobe than even I had at her age?_...

Going on with unpacking she however noticed something else about the clothes, _she only has a single dress, but it´s made from high quality spider silk?.!_ and even despite the inherent strength of that material, the dress still seemed to be reinforced with something else, a formal not quite neither suit nor kimono was made from what seemed to be the almost ridiculously strong iron linen of the highest quality and something that to her most resembled chakra strings made solid, the outfit obviously made to last both time and hostile actions, and where more common silk was used it was laced with both spider silk and the stringlike material...

_No wonder you never see any Hyuuga wearing much of any armour, their regular clothes give more protection than most of a samurai armour! But goodness, the cost must be insane..._

_Seems they are really into the utilitarian and quality side when it comes to clothing, just have to wonder wether the amount is normal or because of Hinata being so unassuming most of the time..._

She amended her earlier thought, even though Hinata might have a much smaller wardrobe than she herself ever had, each and every single piece of Hinata´s clothing probably cost more than the entire wardrobe Kurenai had ever had at any one time!

_And really, panties strong enough to have a fair chance to deflect at least thrown needles? I guess I found a whole new reason to call the Hyuuga´s hardassed._ she almost laughed at the thought.

* * *

-*Later*-

"Sensei, this mansion is bigger than the whole house where my apartment is!" Naruto said with a shocked voice after having just arrived to meet up with his new formal sensei and housemate, Hinata already knew where he lived, having used it as a place to sneak off to to get away from her family guards a few times, but neither she nor Kurenai knew the best route and Kurenai wanted him to learn the location properly from the start so here he was, gaping at the small mansion and the park-like area that it was located on.

"Well Naruto, I got lucky, very lucky actually. You see I was looking at this and marvelling at the minimal price that was being asked for it, knowing all too well that it was still far too much for me unless I went totally crazy on getting missions done... Last year there were two minor clans who had crossmarried a lot over the years and finally decided that maintaining both of their residences when they could both easily fit within the larger mansion with plenty of room to spare even, was a dreadful waste of money that could be better used elsewhere. And the two clans were in all but name already almost united."

"Well, earlier this year they got into a bit of trouble, they have plenty enough assets, but suddenly needed a large sum of cash in the near future, liquidating their other assets would take too long or be horribly ineffective and they really don´t like borrowing money, especially not at the rates they would get for a hasty situation like this, so they decided to first try and simply drop the pricetag on this mansion to see if they could get it sold before they had to take those loans anyway. Add to that the deal I worked out with the Hokage, essentially allowing me zero interest on the loan for the estate as well as almost zero tax, as this is officially an extended part of the academy" that got Hinata to giggle and Naruto to blink "and the fact that we wont bother with any kind of servants as would commonly be expected in such a place, well the running costs becomes amazingly low..."

After thinking for a long moment "Oh, yeah guess we really got lucky then" Naruto said with a big grin, looking with appreciation at the large house.

Just as he was about to say something more he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an ANBU, seeing the stylised fox marking on the mask she wore his grin only got wider "Hi Kitsune-chan! Haven´t seen you in a while, I hope you´ve been good?"

"Hello Naruto-kun, yes I´ve been on a mission away from the village for over a month, just got back last week and I´ve been very well thank you." smiling behind her mask she gave a nod to Kurenai while continuing her little chat with the boy "And you Naruto, I assume you´re doing well and being kept busy since I haven´t heard of any new shocking pranks" that got an embarassed little giggle from him "so how does this big change feel then?"

"It´s really exciting and... a little scary and nervous, you know I´ve lived by myself ever since I left the orphanage and suddenly sharing a place with two others, it feels kinda strange. But I´m sure it´s going to be really great! I mean I´m going to live with my best friend and Kurenai-sensei!"

Kaori smiled behind her ANBU mask "I think you´re right, it will be really great, you´ll see." turning her attention over to Kurenai she went on

"Now, for the reason I´m here, Yuuhi Kurenai, as of today you are officially promoted to specialist jonin" she almost laughed openly at her friends surprise "the Hokage thought the day you had officially accepted both your new apprentices would be suitable for this rather overdue change of rank." she handed over the offial document to the person who was now once again her equal in rank.

"Thank you, I´m glad you could be the one to give it to me. I guess the official specialisation is genjutsu?"

"Of course. And instructor..." that got a small "oh, I guess..." from Kurenai "And taijutsu... And strategy..." now Kurenai was actually surprised enough to be gaping "And tactics and finally theoretical knowledge, a well deserved collection I think."

With that many specialisation areas aknowledged she would almost be halfway to a full jonins salary already, once she got over the surprise Kurenai was both amused and annoyed at how well the Hokage had set it up, _him and his amusements_ she thought with a wry smile. "Well, I guess I better try to get used to living up to all the new expectations then."

"Congratulations sensei!" came almost simultaneously from Naruto and Hinata. Naruto soon followed up with "Hey Kitsune-chan, want to help me move?"

Kaori thought about it for a moment, even though she already knew the answer "Sorry Naruto, I have a big bunch of other stuff I have to do today, but I´ll make sure to come back tomorrow and see if you need any help getting your new room fixed up ok?"

"Great! You´re the best ANBU-chan!"

"Oh and by the way, Kurenai is my friend so you will definitely see more of me in the future, but for now I gotta run! Bye Naruto, Hinata, Nai-chan" waving a quick goodbye she then jumped away fast enough that only Kurenai could really follow her movements. She might not be the fastest one around, but she wasnt far from it.

Shortly after they were ready to head out "So Naruto, how much things do you have, there´s a small cart in the shed next to the house if we need it, or do you think we can carry it by ourselves?"

Naruto bunched his face together in his usual silly ´i´m thinking´ grimace a long moment "Eh, it´s not that much but it´s probably more convenient to use the cart, that will be faster and we wont have to carry much, though I´m not sure I have packs to put it all in."

"Ok then lets get a few boxes as well before we go."

* * *

-*o*-

Two hours later, Naruto´s not so abundant but very varied belongings (except the ridiculously stratified clothes, with distressingly much glaringly bright orange among them) were in the room Naruto had claimed as his, he was leaving most of the unpacking for the next day when kitsune-ANBU was going to help him, his organisational skills were, somewhat inferior to say the least, and could certainly use the assistance she had offered.

"Good, how about we go take an early lunch then?" Kurenai barely had time to turn and look at them before Naruto´s enthusiastic agreement was very obvious and Hinata seemed to agree.

"Hey I know the perfect place, old man Teuchi´s ramen-stand is the best in Konoha, please please please, lets go there?" Naruto loudly asked as he managed an almost perfect puppy-eyes pleading.

_Ramen wasn´t exactly what I was thinking, but oh well, doesn´t hurt to try out a new place. _"Alright Naruto, lead the way!"

While following a rather hyper Naruto not quite bouncing ahead of them "You know the place Hinata?"

"Mmm, I´ve b-been there a few times with Naruto and some of the o-others from the academy, it´s good enough that if you a-ask me to choose b-between one of the highclass restaurants and Teuchi´s, I´m not sure which I would p-pick."

Kurenai looked at her for a moment "You´re serious. A ramen stand?"

"T-They have every flavour and variant you could ever think of, l-lots of side dishes and during breakfast, l-lunch and dinner they have additional suitable meals, a-and if you ask for it either Teuchi or his daughter Ayame can whip up almost a-anything for you, they´re really nice."

"Just like that, no extra charge?"

"Well, if you want s-something very special, but otherwise as long as you ask when there are few customers, y-you can get anything based on what they have. And all of it tastes j-just great."

"Naruto goes there because of the ramen, I go there because everything else is so good... A-and I would p-probably go there even if they w-were just o-ok, they´re s-so n-n-nice."

In other words, Kurenai thought, they´re great with cooking and they treat both Naruto and a Hyuuga heiress as actual, even normal people. This place was actually starting to sound really impressive. Not, that you would guess so from it´s looks she thought as she saw Naruto duck in under the overhang of a small stand, not even a dozen seats but already a third of them taken, despite regular lunch being at least an hour away. She had passed by it before, but never had either the need or the inclination to try it out. _Guess I should have._ she thought with a mental smile.

Naruto was already talking animatedly with who she assumed was the owner Teuchi, when Hinata and herself entered, the daughter coming over to their side with a smile.

"Welcome back Hinata. Greetings, you must be Kurenai-san" at Kurenai´s surprised look "oh, Naruto has been talking about today all week, he has been so excited about it that he has barely been able to sit still to eat, and that´s saying something for him! Want same as last time Hinata?"

"Ehm, s-same but w-with some new c-change?"

Ayame chuckled slightly "Sure, it will take a little while but that´s just perfect, then you can tell me about everything since last you were here, ok?" smoothly turning over to Kurenai "So, what would you like then, ask and ye shall receive if possible?" she ended with a friendly smile.

Kurenai simply asked to get the same as Hinata and whatever ramen Ayame would recommend, to try them out and see if they were as great as the kids seemed to think. The woman disappeared inside shortly before starting to chop up whatever she had brought out, doing it fast enough to make Kurenai wonder how she could avoid hurting herself and with utter perfection, all while neatly placed so she could talk with Hinata while doing it, her dad meanwhile talking with Naruto who had already finished his first ramen, sometimes either of them would jump into the conversation of the other and sometimes taking care of the other customers, both of them drawing in Kurenai in the conversations as well.

Hearing Ayame scold Naruto mildly for eating too fast just a couple of minutes before hearing Teuchi interject a few tips on cooking into a short diversion about some recipe Ayame was telling Hinata about, Kurenai´s thoughts went _Wow, if I was asked who the parents of Naruto and Hinata were, these two would be top of the list without hesitation, just... wow._

Once the food arrived, she also found out that the kids had not exaggerated about it.

A few minutes later, other early luncher´s started arriving and first either but soon both owner and daughter went off and took care of those, including foodpacks that had somehow been finished while they were doing everything else, picked up instead of eaten there. Occasionally someone else that were a regular customer of the more interesting sort arrived and got a more or less similar friendly treatment as Hinata and Naruto, if much less excessively so, or maybe that was just because the place was busyier now...

_Well, on to the topic of what´s next for today..._

"So, how about next we head over to a shop I know? Hinata, you have extremely good quality clothes but I felt you could certainly use a little extra for some more variation?" turning over to Naruto after a small nod from Hinata "and Naruto, that overall you´re always using, it might be nice and sturdy, but you really need something different both for training and simply to have some choice, ok?"

"Aaw sensei! But I like this orange!" his answer came as part of serious pout.

"I didn´t say you couldn´t use it, but it´s very unsuitable for most work, not to mention that such a colour only being suitable under very few circumstances. For example, does it have enough pockets so you can get enough packing in it to live off for a few days?"

"Eehh..."

"How many armourpockets does it have?"

"Eehh... Wait, what is THAT?"

"It´s specially sized pockets on your clothes made so you can place small pieces of armour in them, when you close the pocket the plate is fixed in place." she held out her arm towards him.

"Here, feel there." she pointed at her arm and watched Naruto´s surprise as he felt the metal underneath the cloth "Since I´m not on a mission I´m only wearing a set of simple and light chakraforged metal plates right now, the weight is barely noticeable. When I´m on a mission though, I normally use a set of slightly heavier pieces made from similar metal but backed onto a special type of wood that is very resilient. Even using all armourpockets, it only covers a small portion of the body, but it´s extremely useful for taking blows, blocking and reducing lethal wounds to just bad ones. If you dont mind being slowed down you can use clothes with more pockets or simply a much heavier set of plates, but that´s not something I would recommend."

"But isn´t that like those training weights Lee uses?"

"No, and he´s also a very bad, even terrible example because very few people could handle that kind of insane training. You MIGHT be able to handle a light version of it, Hinata would probably tear herself apart the first time she tried to spar with anything close to the weights Lee uses, and most people would at the very least hurt themselves badly rather than improve from it.  
And no, it´s most certainly not something suitable for either of you. I didn´t teach you Raiken just to have you run off and make yourself slower than even an unusually lazy civillian... So, shopping?"

Naruto mumbled out an "Ok" while finishing his last serving, they bade farewell, now with all three instead of two intent on returning soon.

After a long but leisurely stroll following the much appreciated lunch they reached Kurenai´s preferred shop for clothes, in the outer parts of Konoha. Good quality with decent pricing, always a winning combination.

They spent, what Naruto claimed was, a tormentuously long time there, Kurenai replenishing her work outfits a bit, getting Naruto a large bundle of regular shinobi clothing sets of the same type and in several colours, even including one in almost the orange that Naruto favored, greatly mollifying him, a much smaller bundle of regular day clothes and a single setup of more note, Naruto quickly naming it his parade uniform, much to the others amusement, while Hinata instead found herself with a varied assortment of day to day items, training sets and some fineries to make up for her otherwise minimal wardrobe.

The reaction she got from them both from calling on Naruto to help see if something suited Hinata amused Kurenai every time. Not that that was the main purpose for it of course, she did need to get Hinata less shy after all. It was going to be hard long work but she had improved a little even over the last couple of years so it was certainly not impossible.

She settled payment and had the storeowner arrange for it all to be delivered later that day, then told her two charges to change over to the training clothes she had taken with them right away.

"Good, now lets head over to training ground 68, now that I will have proper time with you, we can start making use of it."

"68, haven´t heard of it?"

"It´s not far from here, just outside the village. Originally I set it up for myself, but then it became noted and used by a few others, so the Hokage made it an official training ground with me as the caretaker, which also means I´m the one who sets the schedule for it and choose how to make use of the minimal budget for it."

"S-so what k-kind of training g-ground is it?"

"It´s basically an obstacle course... But a rather non-linear one that tries to include as many different sorts of training obstacles as possible, so if you go through it the short way you can pick and choose what you want to go past, for when you use it as such... Then however is it´s other use, for practising stealth, then suddenly the obstacles becomes useful to try and make yourself unseen, and of course if you want to do it the best way, you treat it as an obstacle course which you must get through, the long way past all obstacles, undetected." her smile at that slightly unnerved Naruto and Hinata, making them wonder what kind of course it really was.

After a while they arrived, a large area with a tiny fence around, filled with all sorts of obstacles as well as stones, rocks and trees of various sizes, a few small gatherings of trees, and all of it on terrain that is uneven and with vastly differing grounds, from low grass with soft soil via waisthigh halfgrass to gravel.

"You´re going to try noticing me when I go through the course, I´ll be going in a vaugely halfcircular arc from here, via there and there, to back there. Move over to the center, there, so you get the best view, then try to spot me as much as you can and keep count where and how long you can detect me, ok? Oh and Hinata you probably want to use active Byakuugan." Hinata and Naruto nodded and went over to the indicated place.

Then Kurenai set off, at high speed, completely silent, not making tracks or even disturbing the grass where her feet set down, and after the first few seconds, her two apprentices simply lost track of her, Hinata quickly started using her Byakuugan, but was still having problems fully keeping up with her.

Just a few minutes later, she reappeared and simply walked over to them "So, were you able to detect me?".

"That... was amazing..." Naruto gathered himself together "Eh, not much after the first few seconds just when you started, just barely a few times when you had to move over open ground, and how the heck could you get past those parts with gravel, and how come you didn´t make any tracks at all in the sand?"

"Mmm, even when I used the B-byakuugan I still lost you a few times..."

Kurenai looked at her watch "Fair time as well, good, haven´t slacked off too much then, and how to move without leaving tracks, that´s one of the things you´re going to learn mostly here. We´re going to go here once a week minimum from now on, and before you graduate you´re going to be able to do the course with stealth at at least a third of the speed and level of stealth. And then you´re going to aim for my level."

´Oh shi...´ was the basic reaction in the two other present, as they were having problems thinking about how that was supposed to happen even in theory. That they had just seen it happen, didn´t really feel like it counted. Naruto and Hinata suddenly held a completely new degree of appreciation for the stealth and speed of highlevel shinobi.

* * *

AN

Longest chapter so far posted, moving ahead at a fairly slow pace, still a bit away from any serious action. Next chapter is nowhere near completion so it might take a while, especially since it will hopefully be a time skip chapter as well, but at least I´m getting better at handling the site formatting issues, ch1 now looks a bit better after some fixing.

Any action junkies feeling the story is too lowkey or slow, there will be plenty of action coming later, and the pace will pick up a bit as well, but these chapters establish the background in a way that is far too complex to not include fully. Trying to figure out a decent compromise between setting things up and not taking too long to do it.

BTW:  
Raiken ~= Lightning fist, roughly based on a realworld style that is all about how to be fluid and fast in a hand to hand fight.  
Junan taiso, exactly what Kurenai said it was, exercises from realworld ninjutsu to promote flexibility, strength and improved blood circulation. Turning it into a fighting style is something I once heard proposed, so I used that idea for the story.

Anything you like/dislike, speak up and review.


	7. And there was much rejoicing

A/N:

Monsay, Hinata and Naruto at the start of this is between 10 and 11 years old. It was inferred but not clearly stated as I prefer to keep away from exact dates/ages until later.  
And who the trio was, well that might be rather obvious, or maybe I´m making it look obvious? Nah, probably not... ^_^

Ryujin96, I think you caught just about exactly what I was aiming for, nice to see it succeed.

Ran into some odd problems with uploading again, it totally ruined formatting so I just spent an hour fixing it, if I missed something really bad, drop me a pm.

The chapter surprised me a bit, when I posted the previous one, this was almost nonexistant and I only had a couple of vague ideas what I wanted in it. I expected it to become a fairly small and unimportant chapter for moving the time ahead a bit. And instead it becomes my biggest chapter by far and got a couple of important events added. And I actually wrote most of it in just a few days, never a bad thing to impress yourself I think!  
It´s still not exactly "high adventure" or anything but I hope you like it. If there´s something specific you DO like, or do NOT like, review or drop me a pm.

A virtual cookie for anyone that gets the lame pun with the chapter title.

* * *

And there was much rejoicing

As the newest _NOT a couple_ arrived at the academy, today they drew the attention of almost everyone.  
Sasuke being nearby "Idiot, how could anyone dress up that awful?" he said with a low, mocking  
tone, just high enough to be heard by the target of the barb, or the realistic comment depending on your point of view.

Naruto looked at him annoyed but before saying anything Ino spoke up from slightly further away "You don´t happen to be colourblind do you?" _Wow what a spectacular fashion disaster!_ she thought almost laughing openly.

Shortly followed by Kiba "Naruto, man... That looks terrible! I mean sure I was a bit surprised yesterday when you had those blue and orange clothes, it didn´t look good but... But really, orange jacket with a red vest together with pants in that light green colour? My eyes hurt!"

Naruto grumbled something inaudible while Hinata not quite hissed "I told you so!"

"Huh, speak up!" Kiba said at Naruto´s inaudible reply.

With a sullen look Naruto spoke up "I said, sensei required me to get used to more useful clothes and so she told me to pick together a few sets and start using them at least part of the time, or she would pick them for me..."

Kiba got a decent laugh out of that then more seriously went on "Some advice Naruto, let Hinata pick something for you tomorrow, I´ll guarantee that it will look better and you will probably like it better as well. Trust me!" Kiba said with pity.

-*Next morning*-

Hinata and Naruto arriving drew some attention again but not for the same reason, some simply wanted to see if he looked like the victim of an insane fashion artist again or if reason might have prevailed, others noticed that today the new look was, not really too bad.

Kiba chuckled "I see you took my advice to heart didn´t ya?"

A considerably more normal and cheerful Naruto, with some embarassement "Mmm yeah... Felt odd having anyone go through my clothes but she did come up with two good combinations, this one with black pants and jacket with the orange vest over it and the other using the exact opposite. I still miss the overall though." he ended with a slight sigh.

"S-she didn´t say you c-couldn´t use it, j-just that you had to vary yourself a-and get used to more than that." Hinata added softly.

Naruto brightened "You´re right Hinata-chan! I keep forgetting that. Ehehe..."

* * *

Having noticed how Naruto had quickly gained a bit of bulk after starting his new life, it was apparent that his earlier slight build wasn´t natural, so Kurenai simply sat down and asked him about his previous eating habits.

"Eheh, well sensei-" Naruto was clearly embarassed "It was sort of hard to make the money last you know, I tried to buy as much as I could over at Mayuri-chan´s and Ouchi-san´s but their stores are too far from both my old apartment and the academy so that wasn´t possible much too often and the places closer, even their ramen cost almost as much as going to Ichiraku´s and there I got much more and it´s so great I ate a lot there, but I still had to buy and eat home a lot as well and that got really expensive." Naruto seemingly managed to say it all in a single breath.

Kurenai was baffled for a moment, she managed to connect the two names to a couple of stores on the outskirts of the village, interestingly both were stores run by ex-shinobi. And common cup ramen as expensive as eating out? Even if Ichiraku´s wasn´t expensive, that should be an impossible pricetag.

The next day she spent visiting stores all over the village.

The day after that, she met with the Hokage, making sure to get him to secure the meeting from prying eyes and ears.

A Hokage that was currently surprised enough to sit wideyed with his mouth almost hanging open. "They WHAT?"

"Someone, one or a few shinobi apparently, spent a lot of time going around Konoha´s food stores and making it seem as if it was an official order that Naruto should be heavily surcharged."

"But-"

"No, ANBU kept a keen eye on the BOY-"

"But not... on the places he visited, while he wasn´t there..." the Hokage slowly shook his head while frowning.

"Exactly. I realised something was fishy when he said that both stores where he got decent prices were run by ex-shinobi, and when I talked to them, both stated they had even reported it here, since they got suspicious of how those doing it would not give any official identification, and Mayuri also said she was almost certain the one who came to her store was using a common henge transformation, but one very skillfully applied, she was a sensory specialist and still wasn´t completely sure. As if the user was an infiltration expert for example..."

"They reported it? That I really do not like to hear, as I know nothing of any such reports."

"I figured. It also seems to have had secondary effects, with other types of stores picking up on the scheme and more or less use it as well, it certainly seems to have added to the overall negative treatment of the boy. Interestingly, one store where I talked with the owner, he actually asked if I was officially changing the village policy about the boy, and how of course he would hereafter provide the boy with normal prices if that was the case. Another store however went the opposite direction and claimed they had to discourage Naruto from shopping there since they would loose customers because of him. I rather doubt that was the real story."

"Disturbing..." the Sandaime said quietly "Of all the things I tried to look out for, the dangers to avoid, this is something I would never have expected. I cant even think of why anyone would do something as troublesome and petty."

"The best I could think of was that it´s simply easier to recruit someone when he is starving and you have plenty of food to provide" she grinned slightly "though I think Hinata may have ruined that part of the plans if it ever was part of the intent behind it" at the Hokage´s questioning look "she started sharing her lunch with him almost from the start of their friendship, since that was what brought them together, and she quickly made sure to make his part of that lunch triplesized..."

Sandaime laughed with the first mirth he had felt during the conversation "Good girl!" but soon got more serious again "I will have to start a serious investigation about this, but it´s going to be tricky, very tricky if these people have such easy access to the offices here as your story suggests..."

"Yuugao and Ibiki?"

"That was my first thought as well, but at least Ibiki I have more urgent work for..."

"Oh... How about Yurika then?"

"Who?"

"Yurika at cryptoanalysis, we shared house after the Kyuubi attack and kept in touch since then, she´s still young but skilled at analysis and utterly reliable, it´s a very different sort of analysis needed here but I think she could do it well enough as part of a team at least."

"Hmm, I´ll keep her in mind, thank you."

* * *

Kurenai quickly realised that both of her apprentices did a lot better with practise away from others, especially shy Hinata but also Naruto who all too often let his competitiveness get the better of him, and he certainly didn´t learn much while trying to show off, Kurenai had just greeted them slightly away from the academy and was just about to start the lesson of today when she saw an older girl approaching.

Not very tall, light brown hair with a hint of orange, a barely noticeable but perfectionist makeup, and a slight smile on her lips, Kurenai vaguely recognised her as being from one of the older classes at the academy, wondering why she seemed to have followed her own students here.

"Yes?" she asked after having told her students to start warming up and then walked up and met her.

"Yuhi-san?" Kurenai nodded "Ayane Yoshida... Well I know something you might be interested in..."

Kurenai nodded again after a moment "My older brother´s genin team includes a Hyuuga and it seems old Hiashi was most... _surprised_ and extremely irritated when he found out who his daughter´s fellow apprentice was, I thought that maybe you should know to avoid the man in the near future at least."

Kurenai was quiet for a moment before replying evenly "Out of the goodness of your heart?"

Ayane hesitated barely a fraction of a moment before giving a small, pleasant smile "Of course not, although I probably would have sent you the warning anyway, now I had a reason to do it as soon as I could and in person."

"And what might that reason be? Let me commend you on your quick wits by the way. Impressive for someone so young."

Ayane´s smile grew wider "Thank you, always nice to see someone appreciate my efforts. Well I´m a genjutsu specialist, not very good with the other things yet, but my family has had no recent shinobi focused on genjutsu and so I find myself with barely anything more than what the academy offers, which when it comes to this skill is very minimal."

"...I´m already far too busy to try and teach you, and I dont even know how proficient you really are..."

"Yes I certainly understand that, I had something in mind however. And isn´t testing someone without asking a bit rude dont you think?"

Kurenai smiled slightly as she had felt the girl detect and dispel her tiny genjutsu with an ease similar to her own "It is, but it is also a way to evaluate raw skill rather than preparedness, although I assume you did come prepared?" Ayane nodded with a smile that clearly said _of course_

"What did you have in mind then?"

"What I need is to learn a few useful genjutsu, and I hear that is exactly what you will be teaching in Kakashi´s advanced training class?"

"Oh no, you wont be joining that, there´s good reason why chunin are the lowest ranked that are part of it."

"Of course not joining it, I couldn´t even begin to handle most of the other things likely to be taught there. But I am highly skilled with genjutsu, even if it´s just the basics so far, those parts I should have no problems with, and without some real techniques for it, I rather doubt I will succeed as a shinobi after my graduation later this year."

"So... Very well, I´ll meet you again tomorrow, put you through a real test, if you´re good enough I´ll let you join those lectures and make sure you get a few texts on the subject to read up on in the meantime. If you fail my test however-"

Ayane relaxed visibly even if it was just barely so "That should not be an issue. Graduating into a genin team with poor taijutsu, ninjutsu **and** genjutsu **would** have been a major problem. I think I might be able to pick up some elemental ninjutsu later on, but I´ve never been able to do well with taijutsu like the rest of the family."

* * *

Iruka was entering the classroom when he heard a *pop* above and felt a cloud of something fall down on him. For a moment there was barely anything beyond a few strangled laughs, then the whole class broke out in laughter for real.

Followed by "Gotcha sensei!" gleefully shouted by Naruto who then went back to laughing merrily.

With admirable calm, Iruka sat down, located a small hand mirror and was stunned by what he saw, somehow his hair was a perfectly neat rainbowstriped colouring from side to side so that all colours were showing nicely from ahead and behind.

_Should that even be possible with just one application of, whatever it was, Naruto had placed over the door?_

Once things had quieted down a bit Iruka said "So I guess you will be happy to stay for detention after school then Naruto?" with a very even tone.

"Sure!" Naruto´s happy acceptance was not what was supposed to be, causing Iruka to blink in surprise.

Elsewhere in the classroom someone else was thinking _Neat, very neat... Impressive getting the colouring so distinct and evenly striped, but I think it´s still missing a, little something... And I think I know just what that is._ if the girl had let her thoughts carry over to her expression, right now what would have shown was a very big, evil grin of anticipation.

-*After lunchbreak*-

Still with the very neatly coloured hair, it didn´t wash out _that_ easily, Iruka came in and sat down at the desk in front of the class, opened a drawer to take out the book he needed to start the class. *poof* A cloud of particles flew up in his face. _Oh man, one of those days is it..._

There was a completely stunned silence for a short moment, then the class broke out in a gale of laughter, though this time noone was taking the blame/credit publicly. With the calm and ease of a few years of practice with this class, Iruka again located the mirror and had to clamp down on a laugh of his own. His face looked like a novice makeup artist had tried to make him look like a clown, and failed miserably in the process. Together with the rainbow hair, he looked utterly hilarious.

He felt around a bit, trying to figure out how it had been done _Heh, this is impressive work, the powder is just a medium with a combination henge and illusion put together applied to it. One it seems I cant dispel only using chakra... It should dispel easily by applying force, which would mean that I have to slap myself in the face until I´ve hit the majority of the powder particles, oh that´s a really evil feature... Alternative is to wait for it to dispel on its own or to get scrubbing hard to get rid of the powder itself._ *sigh* The rest of the day would be a chore to manage any real teaching looking like this.

"Well then Nana, I believe you´ve earned yourself the desire to accompany Naruto in detention after school." he said evenly as he looked up.

"Aaw why so certain it was me ya old bugger?"

"... One, because you´re so far the only one in the class actually capable of doing this, and two because you´re also the only one that would try to either one-up or _improve_ on a prank by Naruto."

"Oh yeah I forgot how outstanding I am! Guess you caught me there." she said proudly.

-*After class*-

Iruka was surprised to see Hinata also stay behind "You´re not on detention Hinata?"

"Eh... W-well Kurenai-sensei will b-be late today so I m-might as well stay and k-keep Naruto company."

Naruto happily added "Yeah it´s much more fun to stay here with you sensei. Then we can get dinner on the way home!"

Across the classroom, Nana laughed at the explanation. Iruka was dumbstruck for a long moment _He got himself detention because he thought it was more fun to be here than to help make dinner? Or was it the prospect of eating out that was the clincher?_ Suddenly several times of past detention due to pranks gained a potentially whole new dimension.

-*Soon*-

After about fifteen minutes, the door suddenly burst open as a woman in a trenchcoat flew in, quickly looked around, was about to say something when she then saw how Iruka looked, blinked a few times while he relaxed and put back the kunai he had covertly drawn while him and the other three in the room had startled. Then she started laughing bigtime.

Naruto´s reaction was first to almost fall over backwards, then when she started laughing and he recognised her "Gaah! Crazy snake lady!" causing Hinata to do an embarassed facepalm.

"Anko, what are you doing here and more importantly, you almost broke the door to the classroom..." Iruka asked calmly, he had already had far too many surprises for one day to be much startled by another one.

"Sorry, sorry!" she leaned over and checked out his new look a bit closer, much closer even "I guess I can figure out what happened now that I see you" she had to try hard not to start laughing again "so... the facepaint stuff is part genjutsu so I guess the girl is responsible for that." she turned over to Nana and did a thumbs up "NICE work there girl!" turned back to Iruka while Nana beamed happily at the praise "So I guess Naruto managed the hairdye thing, causing the detention, and of course dear Hinata didn´t want to leave him alone with big bad teacher." her smile was a bit disconcerting.

Especially when Iruka noticed her clothing details as she went on "I was going to meet up with those two but I ran a bit late and was surprised not to find them already home and so I came here to make sure they were fine." she turned towards the two in question "Ready for dinner?" when Naruto frowned she added "I was thinking Kochi´s would be good..." instantly getting Naruto to look happier. Although still a bit on the cautious side.

"So, are they ready to leave now?"

"... Sure... I was going to let them off soon anyway, AFTER you finish the detention assignment Nana!" he added the last directed at the girl when she was about to get ready to leave.

"You letting Naruto go but not me? That´s just mean you damn slavedriver!"

"As strange as it may seem, Naruto just finished his assignment, I was waiting for you to do likewise... And if you can´t be polite maybe I should add another assignment for you?" Nana grumbled but sat back down and finally began to put a bit of effort into the task. The assignment that is, being polite wasn´t anything she was interested in trying.

Just as Anko was about to leave she noticed Iruka waving at her "You two wait for me outside ok?" then turned back to the teacher "So, what´s the question?"

After being sure Hinata and Naruto was out of hearing range "Two things, first of all I need to know about any arrangements involving my students?"

"Huh, guess Kurenai didn´t get a chance to talk with you yet. Since she´s still accepting missions, even while taking Kakashi´s little pick-me-up class, she talked with me, Kaori and Yuugao to make sure someone´s always around to keep an eye on the kids, well actually she somehow managed to rope in Kakashi and Ibiki on the job as well but they´re not the primary choices for one reason or another. Most of all, they´re simply more busy."

"I´ve heard a little, do they need someone on watch that bad?"

"Maybe, Hokage-sama has even agreed to give a minimal missionpay for the time spent ever since we found there may be several threats to either of them." she went on more quietly, slightly distracted "Mmm, I wonder if I went a bit overboard when Nai-chan introduced me to them... Although I kinda like the _crazy snakelady_ thing..." she perked up again, focusing back on Iruka "So, what was the second thing then?"

Anko wasn´t exactly talking softly so Nana was getting rather interested in their talk _Threats against __**both**__ Hinata and Naruto?_

Iruka sighed slightly "In case you haven´t noticed, you´re not wearing anything underneath that coat of yours, and you´re running around with it unbuttoned..."

Anko blinked, slightly confused while feeling that oh yes, things were indeed a bit _airy_ in quite a few places that usually shouldn´t be quite that much so, even if she did like the more _open_ feel overall "Ehm, oops? Heehee... Well I did say I got a bit late you see I was with this really great guy-"

Nana spluttered while Iruka quickly "Please! I do not want to hear your bed tales in the classroom!"

"Aaw but this one´s really interesting you know, he could do this really neat thing with-"

"Anko..."

"Ok ok... I dont suppose you have a spare bra or panties? Kochi would strangle me if I gave his customers too much of a show." at Iruka´s redfaced incoherent reply and the strangled laugh from Nana she grinned "I thought so. Hey wait a second..." she started feeling around in the pockets of the trenchcoat and a moment later triumphantly pulled out a couple of tiny bundles from two different pockets "Hah! I knew put them there that time when i-" seeing the look on Iruka she didn´t elaborate on why she had a spare set of underwear in her coat. One part in one pocket each.

Instead she merely dropped the coat to the floor, calmly and precisely added the newly found garments to her and then put the coat back on "I´ll be seeing you, and probably you too prank girl, byee!" and not quite dashed out to find her charges for the day.

Iruka took a moment to compose himself, after which he was somewhat intrigued at seeing Nana still look longingly after Anko, bad case of not quite worship in her eyes. _Oh dear, not exactly the rolemodel I would have preferred for her._ Iruka thought with some concern, even if on second thought the two did have personalities at least somewhat similar, then simply went on to hope that regardless, it might get the girl to actually make use of both the mind and skills she had for something beyond pranks and getting into trouble, mostly of the I _used henge to look older so I could sneak into a bar/nightclub_ sort, although at least she usually didn´t get caught.

And he really did **not** want to find out at what age Nana had managed to learn first simple disguise genjutsu and then apparently soon afterwards the common henge, all for the sole purpose of getting into highly adult parties.

Thinking of the other kids again_ Hah, so by getting detention, they got late and made Anko get here instead so that it would be perfect timing to go for dinner before going back home, I wonder which of them figured it out..._

"So sensei, when´re ya gonna get humping with Anko then?"

Iruka jerked a bit "Huh?" surprised at the question and a little for it coming from one of his students, while not at all surprised at which of his students it came from.

"She gave you a an S-class show man!" Nana went on when he didn´t answer quickly enough.

"Ah... As much as it might flatter me, that´s rather normal for her. I´m quite sure she would have done that regardless if I was here or not, actually I would not be the slightest surprised if she had done that while the whole class was here as well."

Nana went wideyed "You´re kidding! Damn that´s so totally COOL!"

Iruka mentally facepalmed at the outspoken admiration for Anko´s excessive tendencies to show off, one way or another, usually in as many ways as possible at once. Or in this case, more the simple lack or complete absence of anything that could remotely be called modesty.

* * *

The academy was once again doing some sparring between students, both for evaluation but also to provide experience beyond basic practise. With three years left until normal graduation, the average level of skill was still not exactly high, even a welltrained ten or eleven-year old is still their age, but the upper end of the class were still capable enough that they could seriously mow down civillians.

For the first round, Naruto had been paired up against Chouji, not exactly a match made in heaven, Naruto could outspeed him with ease even before he had started improving his taijutsu, while Chouji´s bulk was nowhere near just fat, fast he was not but he could take quite a lot of hits before even being bothered, and his strength was certainly on a higher level than Naruto´s, for now at least.

The match ended as it had done before, except today Naruto scored at least three times as many hits as he had last time against Chouji, but once the latter managed to land a hit, it was a knock-out, even if not literally so, but it was all that was needed for Mizuki to judge Chouji as winner, even if he did call it by a very narrow margin.

Sasuke ending up facing Ryu probably was a match made in heaven though, as the two competed for the number one spot in taijutsu ranking, Ryu having a slight advantage thanks to being slightly more grown up and roughly equal in skill even if his speed wasn´t quite as good.

And it annoyed Sasuke to no end as he knew very well that if he had been allowed to go beyond basic hand to hand fighting, involve ninjutsu or even the most basic of genjutsu, he would easily have won, but what was truly grating on his nerves was how Ryu kept up a running commentary on their fight, specifically on what Sasuke was doing good and bad. The worst of it was that he was both impartial and correct about it, meaning that whenever Sasuke got pressed in the fight he was also forced to hear exactly why he was failing. Their drawn out match eventually ended with a minimal win for Sasuke who managed to get Ryu to overextend and then use his better speed to get something as simple and unexpected as a tripping to work.

Hinata was unhappy about facing someone else than Naruto or Kurenai, she still couldn´t really be serious against others and facing the much larger and heavier Kiba, which just happened to be one of top five in hand to hand fighting in the class, she was going to need all she had!

She still gave him a good fight but in the end it wasn´t quite enough to offset that she wasn´t allowed to use the Jyuuken fully, and together with the very simple fact that the size difference together with Kiba´s skill made it so potentially uneven, still made her showing very impressive. Something that had her blushing quite fiercely when Iruka, acting as judge, said so even though he gave Kiba a fairly solid win.

Sakura ended up against Shikamaru and was eventually awarded a win, something she was furiously annoyed over for days because she was completely certain that Shikamaru would have won without the slightest trouble if he had wanted to. If he could have been bothered to try even a little.

It definitely didn´t help how the kunoichi that judged their match had rolled her eyes in a very graphical way while declaring Sakura the winner.

* * *

After leaving Hanabi with Hinata, Keiko Hyuuga went inside again, wanting to talk with Kurenai. "She is already a much happier child, I´m ever so thankful Kurenai-san. Even when you started training her earlier, it made such a difference, but now" she smiled ", now she is almost like a different person, all to the better."

"Be proud of yourself, you´re one of the reasons Hinata stayed as sane as she did despite everything."

"I tried, she´s always been such a kind girl. But with her mothers death and then the kidnap attempt that ended with her uncles death..." she sighed "Strong traditions are usually a good thing but in this case they hurt far more than they helped."

"How is Hanabi doing, now that her sister isn´t there all the time?"

"Oh she´s doing fine, she has always been a very strongheaded child. If Hinata had gone away completely that could have devastated her, but now instead seeing her sister this much less troubled and still see her several times a week, she´s actually doing truly well. Her cousin Neji is the current prodigy of the clan but personally I think Hanabi will overtake him eventually."

"And I bet you´re part of the reason for that?" Kurenai said with a slightly crooked smile.

"Ehm... I try." Keiko blushed a bit. "Hinatas mother asked me to take care of her daughters since she wouldn´t be able to... so that´s what I´ve tried! I... that was part of what I wanted to talk to you about, I was wondering if you might have any tips or suggestions on how to improve Hanabi´s training, I only handle the basics for her but anything might be useful..."

* * *

The raised voices nearby were getting angrier "Damn those two are even louder than usual today." Naruto said as he looked over at the scene that Ino and Sakura was making.

"T-they look r-really angry..." Hinata had already had her attention on them for a while, not at all liking what she was seeing.

"Yeah, it´s like they weren´t friends at all any longer..."

Hinata startled a bit, looking over at Naruto, looking worried. Then the two girls started insulting each other more than arguing. Hinata got up and started walking over to them.

"Eh, Hinata?"

-*A moment later*-

Ino and Sakura went suddenly quiet from the surprise of Hinata pushing them apart and remaining in between them, trembling slightly.

"S-stop it y-you t-two, j-j-ust stop it! N-now what w-were you ar-arguing about?"

The two previously arguing girls were not getting any less surprised soon, never having seen the quiet Hinata act anything like this before, and while the stuttering was worse than ever, it was beyond obvious that she was not asking, the quiet voice was giving orders that were not open to interpretation.

Both girls, almost in unison replied silently "Sasuke..."

"W-wh-what?"

"Who get´s Sasuke..." Hinata wasn´t even sure who had said it, or if they had actually managed to say it together.

"A-are y-you both s-st-upid? I-it do-esn´t m-matter w-which of you s-say he´s g-going t-to b-be yours, that´s h-his d-d-decision and h-his alone! Y-you´re b-best f-friends, a-ct like it! A-and if in the end Sa-suke l-likes one of you the o-other should j-just b-be happy, b-because at le-ast he´s with y-your b-best friend, h-hope-f-fully m-making one of you h-happy!"

"..."

"N-now you b-better m-make up and st-ay friends o-or I´m g-going to k-k-kick b-both y-your a-asses s-so h-hard there w-wont be any left o-of it for S-sasuke e-even if he w-wants one o-of y-you!"

Hinata had gained a constantly increasing blush as she talked and could now probably do a decent imitation of a tomato without additional props, after which she abruptly turned and left.

While Hinata walked back somewhat shakily, Ino and Sakura were stunned for a long moment, it was like getting scolded by the nicest, cutest kitten ruler of the world ever. They also knew that if she was serious she could easily go through with the threat, Ino had zero chance in a fight against Hinata, and Sakura was even worse. Together they might hold out for a few seconds extra, maybe.

"Damn, she´s totally adorable when she´s angry. I´ve never seen her like that before." Ino quipped without really thinking about it.  
Both girls looked at each other for a short moment before giggling.

Finally getting over the surprise, Sakura sighed "She´s also right you know..." Ino had been her most important friend for so long and they had been on the edge of completly destroying that. She sighed again and silently vowed that she would rather just let Ino have the crush of both of them rather than giving up on Ino as a friend, her only real friend for a long time.  
Inner Sakura shouted and grumbled about it even though she still agreed, unhappily.

"... I guess she is... Friends?" Ino asked with embarassment obvious as she looked down, she didn´t want to give up on the boy but she resolved to at least never let it deteriorate to such an inane fight again.

"Always!" Sakura´s strong reply made her look up and after a moment add a decisive nod followed by a smile from both.

-*Nearby*-

Hinata sat down heavily back next to Naruto.

"Wow that was sooo cool Hinata!"

"Y-y-you think s-so?"

"I couldn´t hear what you said but they´re definitely back to normal again and they don´t seem to be angry at all either."

Hinata looked up just enough to get a sneak view of them and slumped down with a sigh, trying to stop herself from shaking. "G-g-good."

"So what was the problem?"

"T-they b-both like t-the same b-b-boy."

Naruto went *huh* "Why would they argue about that, isn´t it better that they have something in common?"

Hinata looked at him for a moment in surprise then started laughing.

* * *

Kurenai looked in and changed her mind, deciding not to disturb them right now. Hinata was reading homework while speaking a running commentary on what she was reading while Naruto was listening reasonably well, even if fidgeting and being a bit restless. It was the result of several weeks of figuring out how to improve academy grades.

Hinata being fairly bright was still not exactly a booklearner and Naruto was quite poor at learning as long as it wasn´t something directly practical and useful, and very, very preferably not from a book.  
After trying several different ways, this was found to at least work, Hinata doing a basic recap of what she read made her remember it better herself while Naruto got a second opinion on what he read himself, often adding enough to make the difference between some degree of understanding or remembering and not.

Naruto had simply picked his room as one adjacent to Hinata´s and they had soon started using this room, which was almost adjacent to both of theirs as the place to meet and use as a common area for them, to allow their rooms to be kept a bit more private. With the large house, it was a simple solution to the first not really argument between the two children, both having a bad day at the same time. And with both of them being as they were, it had taken Kurenai over an hour to even notice, despite being mostly present or at least nearby.

In the end, Hinata had actually shouted at Naruto, if ever so slightly, and then turned extremely embarassed and unhappy about having done so and apologised with excessive stuttering, after which she was rescued from going to pieces completely by Kurenai interfering. Once Naruto had understood that she felt like shit and needed some rest, that being a girl had it´s downsides and that just about any company, especially loud would only make things a lot worse his apology had been heartfelt, surprisingly eloquent and very very softspoken, and then things were back to normal.

But the shared dayroom was a good way to make things work smoother and became an instant success even before they had put decent furniture in there.

* * *

Kaori had just started for home after an onduty evening when she felt the seals she had helped Kurenai set up around her new house pull at her. After feeling around for a moment _Just the outermost perimeter ones so far, but several hostiles and I´m already close._

Changing direction she went from a casual walk to a lightningfast rush via the most direct route.  
Boosting her vision as she approached she saw Kurenai cautiously engaging six obviously hostile shinobi, two of them clearly trapped in genjutsu and having trouble getting free, as her last powerful jump before reaching them gave her a better view she was astounded at seeing the enemies to be dressed as three jonin and three chunin from Kumo.

_Damn that´s a LOT of power! This could get tricky until the response team and the ANBU gets here. Maximum firepower for the win!_

Twisting a bit while still in the air she stretched out her hands and activated the seals at her fingertips, launching ten heavy darts, about half the size of a standard kunai, at one single opponent who noticed her far too late to completely avoid them.

And almost failed her landing from the surprise she got when the supposed jonin only deflected three of the incoming projectiles, and even those just barely _What the hell? I know my technique is hard to predict but that´s the kind of reaction I would have expected from maybe a veteran genin! Well, that´s one foe that wont be bothering us again._

Not even halfway through the landing she swung out her arm towards the next closest hostile and triggered her standard weapon seal, and instead of missing her target by over a meter, which the man could clearly see and was apparently already mockingly dismissive of her because of it, she suddenly held a large mallet, completing the swing and impacting the shinobi with a loud smack through which several *cracks* could also be heard.

Many people had asked why she used something as odd as mallets for her hand weapon seals, it was really simple however, the way her specialised seals worked allowed her to cheat physics a little bit, meaning she could swing her hand before activating the seal, getting the full speed with it, then activate the weapon and also get the full momentum as if she had used the mallet for the whole swing. Which would be impossible to do at that speed.

_Sheesh what kind of jokers is this? I´m pretty good but not THAT good, this one didn´t feel like more than a genin either, at best!_

Looking over at the rest of the so called fight she saw Kurenai finish off what seemed to be the last one with a serious kick at the neck, the two that had been trapped in genjutsu seemed to have simply died standing from it "You and the kids ok Nai-chan?"

"Yes, they may have been dressed up all high and mighty but calling them amateurs would be an insult to amateurs! I think I overdid it quite severely, none of these will live more than a few minutes, what about yours?"

Kaori checked the two she had engaged "Uh, they didn´t have much endurance did they... This one´s dead and the jonin woman took five of my darts cleanly, she probably wont even last until the ANBU arrives."

The village security response team arrived "Yuhi-san, it seems the issue has already been taken care of?"

"They actually got lost in the perimeter genjutsu, and they didn´t put up much more of a fight"  
Kurenai turned back to Kaori "go join Naruto and Hinata, you know how to enter the safe area."

"Right." Kaori left at a brisk walk.

"Just secure the area in case this is a diversion or something." Kurenai asked the response team.  
While waiting for the ANBU to arrive she looked the dead shinobi over and quickly realised that she knew these from the Konoha bingo-books, all six belonged to the two Kumo clans that had engineered the failed attempt to kidnap Hinata when she was younger. The event which was then exploited by those clans and the Raikage, leading to the death of Hiashi Hyuuga´s brother. _And the timing, they must have set this stupid attack in motion the instant they found out about Hinata changing residence._

Then she had an idea. A reckless and dangerous idea certainly, but it should at least do some good. _At least as long as it doesn´t start a war..._ she thought with a frown, but still deciding the risk was probably worth it.

Seeing an ANBU team arriving she smiled as she recognised who was leading it, that would make matters so much easier. Then she heard Naruto, turned and saw him excitedly approaching, not quite restrained by Kaori, with a hesitant Hinata following.

A moment later he was close enough to clearly see the bodies and went from excited to almost subdued and quite greenfaced in barely a moment, not surprising with how at least two of the bodies looked, Kaori´s fighting style rarely left pretty corpses. Instead of holding him back, Kaori suddenly found herself holding him up, Hinata stopped a moment at the sight, then visibly steeled herself after a long look with a grim face of recognition and then went forward and took Naruto´s arm over her shoulder and almost carried him back towards the house after a quick nod of gratitude to Kurenai.

-*Next morning*-

Kurenai was standing in the Hokage´s office with an expressively neutral look on her face, with Yuugao beside her in her usual catfaced ANBU mask.

The Hokage was annoyed to say the least "Now then, will you perhaps tell me the full story of tonights event?"

"Everything that you should know is in the reports Hokage-sama." Kurenai replied evenly.

_Everything I SHOULD know indeed..._ "And if we move over to what I NEED to know, wether I know it officially or not then?"

Yuugao visibly relaxed slightly while Kurenai again replied for both of them "Well that of course is quite a different matter, I thought you would never get around to asking." ending with a hint of a smile.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed "Very well then, the attack was clearly dealt with easily  
so what was so important to keep away from my offical position then?" _Not that it´s ever nice to find out that there´s yet another security flaw for the village._

"What I did afterwards." the raised eyebrow she got in return almost shouted _And what the hell was that then!.? _ "All of them were from the two Kumo clans that caused the mess with the kidnap of Hinata, so I figured I should encourage them to get lost, and since I wanted to avoid the same kind of official situation that they exploited the last time, I acted in the role of a private citizen and the guardian of Hinata."

"I can see how that was needed yes...?"

"I preserved their heads and sent each one of them with an expressively personal note to the clan leaders of the six most powerful clans in Kumo, and specifically not to the Raikage nor the two offending clans."

"...And what might those notes have said?"

"Oh, something like _Mend your broken ways or í´ll make sure you dont have any left_?"

The Sandaime blinked "And you went along with this?" he asked Yuugao slightly shaken.

"Yes Sarutobi-sama, something needed to be done and this way we can use their own methods against them. And when I arrived it was already over so in theory the village was not involved in it." Yuugao´s answer was crisp and steady despite her somewhat uncertain attitude to the potential mess.

"And you really think they will take such a threat seriously?" he asked as he turned back to Kurenai.

"They already know that I have infiltrated Kumo several times and gotten away again long before they knew I was there so they can´t ignore it at the very least. It´s more of a statement that we or at least **I**, wont accept their lenience with such behaviour any more rather than a full force threat though. And I would be surprised if they didn´t realise that as well."

The Hokage closed his eyes for a long moment while he leaned back and sighed "Very well, it´s reckless but I can´t really disagree with it after you went to such lengths to keep it off the official records. Something certainly needed to be done, and my offical hands are far too tied up in this matter."

After a moment he went on "I´m somewhat surprised at the reports however, three jonin and chunin each and yet you and Kitsune took them out alone in less than a minute?"

"Those clans have far too much political power for their own good it seems, those were more like, at best veteran chunin and at worst academy graduates. They should never have been promoted like that by anyone sane or uncorrupted."

"Ah, political promotions, that would explain it... I know very well that you´re skilled, and Kaori is no slouch, but three jonin together with good support sounded simply too outrageous."

* * *

"Anyone know if Mizore is here today?"

"I´m standing right here sensei..." suddenly Iruka could clearly see the girl at one side of the classroom, apparently helping Akiko with something.

"Well you´re a bit hard to see sometimes."

"You´re just not looking, Hinata and Akiko can see me just fine all the time."

"Hinata has Byakugan and Akiko is a chakra sensor."

"Without using those. And they´re not the only ones either! Naruto can always see me as well and he´s certainly neither..." her reply came with a soft but obvious defiance, but also slightly slurred.

"And could you please take that thing out of your mouth while talking?"

Instead of getting an answer, Iruka saw the girl fade out of sight again with a pout on her face _Oh great now I managed to get her sulking as well..._

* * *

An unusually big thunderstorm was passing by late in the evening and Kurenai was going through the house checking that there were no open windows or anything else letting water in, and that the few electric appliances were disconnected, ending her litte tour of the house at the rooms of the two children.

She opened Hinata´s door, looked in and saw pretty much what she expected "Hello Hinata, if you can´t sleep for all the thunder, dont bother staying in bed." Hinata looked like she couldn´t decide for a moment and then got up, jumping slightly at another lightning strike fairly close then hastily moving after Kurenai.

Kurenai opened the door to Naruto´s room and the scene was pretty similar, except Naruto was sitting upright in his bed and even startled slightly at the light from the hallway "As I just told Hinata, if it keeps you awake, dont bother staying in bed."

He nodded and got up, then saw Hinata appearing next to Kurenai and looking less than happy, and suddenly his own anxiety was less important "You... you alright Hinata-chan?"

"I-i really d-dont l-like lightning m-much..."

"Don´t you worry, I´m here!" Hinata smiled a little at Naruto´s grand proclamation.

Kurenai looked at them "Hey, how about we play some cards or something until things get a bit less loud?" the suggestion was quickly and gratefully taken up by both children.

* * *

"Thank you for coming." Nana said with more feeling than usual, nodding at Hinata, Mizore, Akiko, Kiba and a slightly grumbling Naruto.

Naruto was the first to reply "So then showoffgirl, what did´ya want?" Hinata cringed slightly at Naruto´s rough question, which was impolite to say the least even without the addition of what could easily be considered a direct insult, and Nana wasn´t exactly the calmest person around.

She was surprised when Nana actually smiled before replying "Well, it´s simple really. I want to figure out how to copy Mizore´s disappearing act, all of you can see through it and you two, Hinata and Akiko, you´re pretty good with the sensor stuff already, and Kiba has that keen nose of his and while I don´t have a clue why Naruto can see through it, that´s what I want to find out!"

That wasn´t exactly what any of them had expected when she had invited them, but at least for one of them, the wheels turned and "Aah... So your favorite party club upgraded their bouncers enough to see through your usual henge?" Mizore asked slowly with a slightly messed up voice from having recently switched to a brand new and quite large lollypop in her mouth.

"That´s not the only reason!" the reply made Kiba strangle a laugh. Nana continued "Come on, I doubt I´m the only one who thinks it´s a cool ability?" looking around she got nods all around "I mean just because I´m the one trying to copy it doesn´t mean you can´t try at the same time as you help me right?"

Well over an hour later, a lot of testing had been done, and very little noticeable progress.

"Damnit! It looks like a genjutsu and yet it´s clearly not. And Naruto can see, hear and even smell her even when I can´t..."

"You know it might not be something you can copy..." Akiko added in a mild voice.

"Yeah, yeah I know..." Nana grumbled "But it should be possible to get at least a similar result somehow. Again, how does it look when you use chakrasensing?"

"Well... It´s like she´s nearby all over rather than in one single place, I guess you might be able to do something similar if you could stretch your chakra out somehow, or at least how others sense it..."

"Hinata?"

"Uh? Mmm, w-well yes... sh-she does look... I dont know, d-diffused or something when I use B-byakuugan."

Nana looked over at Kiba "Sure that might be part of it, she both sounds and smells like she´s all over the place when she fades out. It would be totally cool to come up with a technique that could do that no matter if it´s the same or not!" he was still enthusiastic for sure. Spending time as almost the lone guy among several pretty girls had nothing at all to do with it certainly, oh no.

"But you don´t notice anything unusual at all when she does it do you Naruto?"

"Nuh uh! She sometimes goes a tiny bit fuzzy-like but that´s all."

"Mmm, I wonder if I could manage some sort of diffusion like that through a henge, at least those I´m damn good at..." she looked over at Naruto "And interestingly, so are you Naruto..."

Another hour passed, Kiba had reluctantly left, Mizore as well, while Nana had spent a lot of the time tiring herself out with various henge´s and illusions with the others trying to judge how well it worked to make her less noticeable or at least less visible. And badgering Naruto relentlessly to compare notes on how they performed the classic transformation ninjutsu, the henge.

"Ok then, so how about this?" with a slight *poof* she changed, this time in a very different way than previously. The others startled slightly at seeing how she was still visible and yet somehow seemed partially transparent, when she moved it was something like a mix of seeing through her like she was a window and looking at a mirror surface. Disconcerting, and it finally did manage to make her clearly harder to see.

And after a moment Hinata spoke up "Y-y-you actually did s-something like it... A-at a d-distance I don´t think I c-could see you very well."

"Different from Mizore but certainly useful if you can improve the rough edges, but that camouflage thing you do on your body as part of it, it´s almost as creepy as Mizore´s trick." Akiko added.

Naruto had gone slightly wideeyed and was now leaning forward and poked at Nana with a finger "Hey!" she shouted out.

"Uh sorry I just had to check, that looked so totally strange, but really cool!" Naruto said while still looking with interest at her.

* * *

Class end of term rankings had been posted and drawn a fair crowd.  
Not surprisingly, Sakura was number one on theoretical ability and Sasuke with practical skills and easily the overall number one as he was also near the top in theory, while Sakura´s not so good physical skills placed her a bit over the middle in the practical part, it was fortunate for her that hand seals were considered part of that or she would have ended up a good bit lower.

At the edge of the students eager to look and talk about it, alternatively bragging or sulking, Hinata smiled for several reasons, her own scores were up in all categories, in practical skills she was third with just Shino between her and Sasuke, a bit surprising perhaps since Shino wasn´t really neither a major talent nor heavy on training, but he was good enough with everything it seemed and that was hard to compete with.

In theory she was a bit further down but not that much more, and so her overall ranking had gone up quite impressively as well, placing her fourth after Shino and just barely Sakura, trailed by Kiba much thanks to his physical abilities and then Ino thanks to her mental skills. She knew very well that these rankings often were far from reality but it was still wonderfully nice to see your own name near the top.

That was not the main reason for her smile however, Naruto was no longer ranked last and was still jumping around in what very graciously might be called a victory dance. He was still very low on the theory ranking, but at least not last or even third last, but in practical he had risen so that

he was now clearly in the middle third, low in the middle third but still, even with that being his best side he had still usually stayed somewhere between 5 and 8 places from the bottom, and now his overall rank had gone from the steady and constant last to fifth last. And he was insanely happy about it.

Next to her she heard a deep sigh and looked over, Hinata had no problem understanding the sigh, Akiko had ended up last on the practicals again, her only saving grace in that area that she was both quick and excellent on the obstacle course, otherwise her practical scores would have been truly sad. Behind Akiko she saw the two sword users in the class, Gin and Kyouya, look troubled, neither was really good with anything outside their primary weapons, and she had heard that Kyouyas older sister was very much _not amused_ at his inability as she was two years older but more like six years ahead in all skills beyond swords.

Looking back at a now panting Naruto finally winding down from his wild flailing about, she looked again at the name that had very conspiciously remained exactly above Naruto´s in the overall ranking.

It seemed that Shikamaru for some inscrutable reason had managed to also rise just enough in the ranking, still ending up the next above Naruto.

She managed to catch his eyes and moved up to the board and pointed with a questioning look, Naruto had picked up on the movement and followed, saw what she was pointing at and realised what she meant.

"What an amazing coincidence." was Shikamaru´s casual comment as he got closer.

Naruto however noticed an unusual feel about how he said it, perhaps a tiny glimmer in his eyes and a minimal hint of a smile "AAaaah!" he shouted, pointing at him "You did it on purpose!"

"Surely I could not do something so troublesome?"

Ino looked at him searchingly for a moment "You **did** do it on purpose!" shaking her head in a _why me_ gesture.

Sakura looked back and forth between them "You mean to tell me that you made the effort to analyse exactly how much Naruto improved and then raised your own scores just enough to stay one step above him in the ranking?"

"Troublesome women..." he not quite whispered with a sigh "I couldn´t really let the previously forever dead last get a higher ranking than me could i?" he lowered his voice to an almost whisper again "Mom would just get _so_ annoyed if I let that happen." then with a hint of a smile he added with normal voice "And it´s always nice to have an occasional challenge to keep yourself sharp."

-*o*-

When they arrived home, Kurenai met them at the door. "Welcome home and congratulations on your improved scores at the academy. And because I think you did so well with that, I´ve made a cake, a BIG cake."

Naruto brightened into a wide grin and the moment after Kurenai found herself in an instant hug, followed by the more reserved Hinata adding a small hug from the side and "Thank you sensei." with a smile.

* * *

"You summoned me?" she asked the Hokage.

"Indeed Kurenai I did... It seems your reckless idea was the last straw needed for Kumo."

Instantly nervous she asked "That sounds bad, _how_ bad?" and cringed ever so minimally waiting for the answer.

"On the contrary, the two clans were disgraced by the fact that such a supposedly powerful force was defeated by a mere two specialists, and that alone would have been an excellent outcome...

However your... deliveries... for one reason or another got those six clans to act on their already longstanding dislike with the Raikage´s favoritism towards the offending two clans... And it seems that Kumo now has a new Raikage, one whose first actions included taking the heads of both clanleaders that ordered the attack, and the earlier kidnap attempt on Hinata, then sending both of them with a reasonably friendly missive directly to me, specifically for your... and also specifically Hiashi Hyuuga´s perusal. Making the whole thing official and extending an excuse without actually saying it."

"...That... That´s certainly more than I ever expected..." Kurenai leaned back and relaxed at the exceptionally good news. She had hoped, even expected it to result in _something_ that might be called an improvement, but this was truly excellent.

"And lucky, very very lucky. So please, next time **do** tell me before you do something reckless? At least **un**-officially..."

"I´ll try..."

"While this change of leadership was obviously coming, hastening it a bit is probably a good thing at least." _Now the big question is how hard will it be to get my __**own**__ village to agree with the improvement in relations I want to achieve._

-*o*-

A few days later Kurenai was surprised when she opened the door in the middle of the day and admitted an unusually lowkey Hiashi Hyuuga. It wasn´t hard to figure out why he was there but she hadn´t expected him so soon nor this different from his usual arrogance.

Once they had been seated in the dining room and after some minimal small talk, with some effort he seemed to collect himself "I´ve come to express my gratitude for your involvement in recent events. While the risk was... excessive, the results were undeniably... beneficial."

"Thank you... Being the guardian of Hinata I could not let it go on, and what happened before was truly a travesty of exploiting politics, something was long overdue to be done about it. The Hyuuga were unable to act and the Hokage and the village likewise, but acting on my own as merely a person, no matter how much of an illusion it was, I could at least minimise the risks and try to use their own ways back at them. Though I was surprised that the new Raikage went as far as he did, favourably surprised. If he is serious and if he can remain on top of the domestic scheeming..."

"I will believe it when I see it." Hiashi said with the barest hint of a smile "But regardless, the death of my brother has finally been avenged, the heads of my longest standing enemies are no longer attached to their bodies and my daughter remains safe and unharmed... And increasingly welltrained. You have my gratitude and my favour." he ended the little speech with a small but very clear and respectful bow.

The first thing Kurenai thought was _Was that really a joke? _ then she realised that he had pretty much left himself completely open for her to ask whatever she wanted from him. Turning his offer down would be impolite, but she didn´t really like the idea of dealing in such an official way with him, and counting favours was a game she disliked.

After a moment of thought she managed to come up with something "Would it be possible for me to gain access to the Hyuuga archives, especially those on the Jyuuken?"

"Why?" Hiashi asked with surprise rather than the resentment she had feared might still be the reaction, despite his unusually positive attitude.

"Two reasons, first my own interest in taijutsu, even just the basic knowledge would be highly interesting to me and it might allow me to improve myself even if I´m unable to use the style... And second, Hinata could probably make good use of some of the more advanced techniques you have, if modified to suit her style, something I believe I may be able to do. And then of course there is the possibility that concepts can be adapted or inspire new ideas for her own, already very personalised style."

Hiashi was speechless for a long moment then sighed while drawing his hand through his hair in a very rare display of showing emotion "I give such an offer and you ask for something that will benefit me almost as much..."

"I _do_ take my role as Hinata´s guardian very seriously, but most of all I dislike the game of counting political favours even between friends or allies, and regardless anything else you are a strong supporter of Konoha and that does make you my ally."

"...Hmm, well... There is much to say for taking such an attitude I guess, I sometimes wish I could do so myself." he thought about it for a short moment, his instinctual reaction was pretty much screaming at him to reject such a silly request, but his honor required him to take it seriously, and he also remembered his talk with his daughter and what he had considered about trying to add further improvements to the clan fighting style "...Very well, I assume you will have no issue guaranteeing that anything you learn is taken no further?"

"But of course, no further than myself or Hinata, anything I derive from it I assume wont be a problem as long as it´s kept at a very limited access and without detailing its... ancestry?"

"Yes. One thing about that though, any such that you may develop I will require that you teach one of the clan´s advanced Jyuuken masters, whichever you feel most suited as long as they are capable of teaching others."

"A very reasonable and prudent request, agreed." she gave a clear nod as she answered.

"Good. ...I... I was, somewhat dismayed when I was told the identity of your other apprentice-"

Kurenai cut in "They became friends not long after joining the academy... And to make it simple, they are good for each other, and Naruto has actually been Hinata´s main sparring partner for over 2 years now-" Kurenai smiled crookedly "and he even managed to figure out how to get rid ofthe effect of closed tenketsu from Jyuuken strikes."

Hiashi almost bounced up at attention "WHAT?"

"Don´t worry too much about it, you need massive chakra to do it, and doing it for more than a single point at a time is quite dreadful."

"I see... You can do this also?"

"I can, but I much prefer not to, the chakralevel I have reached is well above average and it is still straining, not to mention painful."

Hiashi nodded thoughtfully "I would like you to see if you can find one of my clan to teach it, it would be bad not to be aware of how it works. It seems the boy is able of more than pranks then... I guess I will have to accept him as my daughters friend..."

_I rather doubt you ever had a choice in that._ she thought with much amusement.  
"He may be truly poor with the theoretical side, but he is showing hints of becoming almost a prodigy at picking up skills in practise. At least you do not seem to hold a grudge against him?"

"But I do. I know he is not what he keeps locked up, but knowing that it is there can still not be ignored no matter how it goes against my principles of letting such interfere... Hmm, almost a prodigy?" Hiashi actually smiled a bit "Let´s hope it rubs off on my daughter then."

Once Hiashi had left, Kurenai was thoughtful to say the least _How long will it last I wonder... And can I do anything to help it last? He still wasn´t exactly easy to talk with but at least approachable and listening, a huge improvement if I ever saw one. But being part his strict adherence to obligation and honor means it probably wont extend to people in general...  
_She sighed slightly as she sat down on the back porch of the house and opened the beercan she hadbrought with her, things were getting oh so much more complex... At least it was nice to have an afternoon free. Such times were really not a common occurence any more.

She had never liked the man but if he remained like today, she could probably at least stop disliking him, perhaps even rather quickly if he actually kept being reasonable. And having him as an ally was certainly much preferred to not.

She felt a bit giddy at the thought of getting a look at the Hyuuga archives, she may not be able to use most of it, possibly nothing at all of it even, but it would still be very valuable knowledge, and based on what she had seen and knew of the Jyuuken style, there were several moves she was interested in seeing how they actually worked.  
_Yes, life was getting a lot more complex very quickly but it certainly had its perks gettinginvolved in so much._

Both kids had certainly responded well to their new environment, and with there always being someone nearby if not always close, if nothing else then officially to keep an eye on Hinata, whoever had been playing with Naruto was going to have serious trouble if they tried to keep doing it. And she had found it interesting, even fun to also teach the veterans in Kakashi´s class, now she was actually slightly sad that the class had ended the previous week.

* * *

More A/N:

I´m using some OCs so I thought I might give you a short runthrough of the ones so far, they wont be taking over the show but will be around now and then:

Kaori is an ANBU weapon seal specialist, looks and vaguely based on Kaori from the "City Hunter" and "Angel Heart" series. A very nice person overall.

Nana is roughly based on how someone prejudiced might THINK that punkrocker Nana from the series "Nana" is. She´s the ultimate "i wanna party" girl and being fairly bright she managed to pick up both some genjutsu and henge at a very early age just to get into places she wasn´t supposed to.

Ryu was originally inspired by the character of the same name from "Ranma 1/2", he´s slightly nicer here though. Taijutsu specialist, strong and highend endurance.

Gin is a much moderated version of Gin from "Bleach". Beyond fast with his preferred sword and capable of outrunning all others in the class, beyond that his abilities dont even manage to be mediocre.

Mizore is inspired by the yuki-onna from "Rosario to Vampire", but Narutoversed and certainly not identical. But she´s still a bit of a stalker and has a natural ability to use ice but no other elements.  
Rather smart.

Kyouya is roughly based on a very mangled interpretation of Nanohas older brother in MGLN, almost lightning fast with his weapons and both mobile and stealthy, but lacking overall, but always enthusiastic.

And finally Akiko is a completely OC by me alone. Excellent chakra control and has the ability of chakrasensing far beyond the common and is fairly bright but is otherwise somewhat lame. The one other thing she´s truly good at is mobility, lean build and a skill that in the real world would place her as a prospective olympics competitor in gymnastics or have her outpace and outperform an expert parkour practitioner.

Ayane I borrowed from "Kimi ni Todoke", a natural with both genjutsu and manipulating people, very carefully maintains her "pretty girl" look, good chakra control and very very smart, becomes fairly decent in most things except direct fighting.


	8. Getting Ambitious?

Rewrote the main part of this because the original was almost twice as long without actually adding anything

* * *

Getting Ambitious?

Kurenai spoke up standing in front of the Sandaime´s desk "You called for me Hokage-sama, another mission so soon?"

"Not really no, I´m sure you will find what I have in mind today quite, restful." he replied with a slight smile. "First, you will take your students as a genin team once they graduate?"

"I pretty much assumed that was part of the plan yes."

"Good, just making sure, have you given any thoughts as to the third member of the team?"

"... No, not specifically..."

"Do so, and perhaps you could, -improve matters a bit overall- while you´re at it? Now then, how are your students doing, from your perspective?"

"Right... Well they´re doing good, Hinata is still shy and introvert but not nearly as jumpy as she was and she´s improving fairly quickly, and while I´m still mostly just aiming to improve their basic skills, she´s already getting quite good. Naruto... is still very extrovert and loud-"

"And reckless and brash?" the Hokage interjected with a smile.

"Pretty much, although I think I´ve made him think at least a little more before he jumps into something, he´s also clearly improving his grades and he seems to be a natural at learning practical skills by seeing them. I think I can summarize by simply saying that these months since they became my apprentices have been very good for both of them."

* * *

-*Later, Kurenai´s house*-

_'"Improve matters a bit overall while you´re at it" eh? Quite a huge request. Lets start with the third teammember... Hinata will be a good precision and specialist fighter and Naruto, with that stamina and chakra amount, almost certainly a pretty good bruiser, so what else does the team need then? Hinata takes care of having a sensor as well. Someone that can be trained as the leader, and definitely someone good with genjutsu, Hinata looks to become decent but probably not good enough._

_A bonus if the final member could become a medic as well, meaning a need for highend control. Someone more actively intelligent would also be good, Hinata is bright but not really exploiting her intelligence yet... _

_Chouji is right out, he´s another bruiser, will probably be a very good one eventually, but he covers none of the needs while not really adding anything beyond brute force.' _She wrote his name and simply crossed it over. Adding a few notes about him without really thinking about it.

_'Ino, rather on the weak side physically, that should be fixable though, and I bet I could help her develop that family speciality of hers very well, it´s based on genjutsu after all... Fairly bright but more boss than leader. She´s a bit on the edge for a medic in control but she should be able to handle basics at least.' _She wrote down Ino as a potential candidate with some qualifiers and a few notes on what she needed to improve and what would be optional.

_'The Uchiha boy?' _She almost cringed just at the thought, the massacre of his clan not even three years ago had turned his personality into a quagmire of especially vengeance but also hatred and some other not so good things._ 'Yes he´s certainly a prodigy, a natural talent and extremely skilled for his age, and even highly likely to keep improving a lot more still, but his narrowminded obsession is not something she even wanted to try to handle, nor did she think she would be much good for it... His family fire affinity is not something she could truly help him with and the very idea of mixing him with Naruto and Hinata felt like a terrible idea. No he is certainly a really bad choice, but maybe she could figure out some way of helping him a little anyway? Gods knew he needs it.'_

Gin and Kyouya came to mind almost as a single piece, maybe because they were the only serious weapon users in their year?_ 'They´re also fairly alike otherwise, Gin devilishly fast with his weapon while Kyouya instead was decently stealthy.' _But while there are many things she could think of the two needed improved, neither felt suitable. Their names were quickly also crossed over with some further notes added.

_'The Aburame boy, what´s the name... Shino, mm bugusers not exactly my favorite.' _But more importantly it was also a skill she wouldn´t have the faintest idea how to help him make effective use of. _ 'Very hard to get a good reading on him, but certainly pretty skilled overall, fairly intelligent and logical and can probably be reasonably motivated to train beyond his family skills...' _She noted him as a big ´maybe´.

_'Mizore, what an odd girl, already able to use ice techniques as if they were almost something she was born with, and yet completely useless at wind or water, despite those normally being the parent affinities for ice. And not even she seems to understand how it works. Decently smart and her "I´m not here" trick, no matter how unintentional it is most of the time, has lots of potential, but she´s dreadfully low on most other skills.' _After a long moments hesitation she crossed out her name as well but with an additional mark placing her as a reserve option.

_'Shikamaru? Extremely bright, something that might let him excel with genjutsu as well, and he would probably make for an excellent team leader with a bit of work, he was also pretty decent overall, at least if you ignored his official scores.' _But his family specialty was another one she wasn´t really good at taking full advantage of._ 'I´ll note him as another maybe at least, I bet people will try to bunch him up with Ino and Chouji anyway, just because their parents and grandparents worked well together doesn´t give the kids a free ride and says nothing about their ability to do so, and I think they will be more effective not bunched together trying to live up to their daddies._

_Ryu, aiming to be a taijutsu specialist, already good, strong and sturdy but not a lot of other skill, might become a light version of Gai if he keeps it up long enough, I think it´s more likely he becomes a taijutsu instructor though._

_Nana...' _Nana almost caused her to cringe for other reasons. '_Quite bright, knew basic genjutsu and henge already when she started the academy and uses both mostly to find rowdy adult parties. Often foulmouthed and sometimes has a really bad temper as well as a bit of a lonewolf. If she was motivated enough she might have been one of the best in the class, but as it is, poor fighter, lowend sensor ability and overall problematic. I would like a chance to work with her but as part of the team? At best she and Naruto would merely go berserk trying to pull pranks on each other...' _She shook her head and crossed her out.

_'Sakura then? Intelligent and studies hard, a natural talent with genjutsu, exceptional chakra control despite her youth, better than most active shinobi with hand seals... On the negative side her personality isnt the greatest, seems a bit split perhaps? Physically weak, slow and her taijutsu is bad and she doesn´t have much to use those hand seals for. Of those likely to take genin teams at the time, I´m probably the best for handling odd personalities though, and being around Hinata and Naruto would likely be good for that, her talent is the same as my own and I think she might be able to grow into a leadership role. And of course her control makes her a clear candidate for medic.' _Slightly surprised at her own conclusion, after the long list of downsides she noted down Sakura as a potentially decent choice.

_'And thinking of Sakura brings me to Akiko, except she´s got superb scores on the obstacle course, isn´t quite as intelligent, nor talented with genjutsu... On the upside she´s a chakrasensor... But... no. Either redundant or not good enough was not a good combination even if her personality was good and she might even make an ok team leader. Pity..._

_And then Kiba, another family specialty I´m not really sure how to make best use of... Training him could certainly be very good for him and could build very well on his already highend physique. But completely unsuited to act as leader for a long time to come and I doubt I could draw out his full potential.' _She crossed him over with a bit of sadness as it would be nice to train someone already so good with taijutsu.

She spent barely half a minute thinking over the less notable half of the current class, quickly concluding that none of them were very likely to become genin. A few of them might yet succeed but none of them felt remotely viable as a prospective teammember.

_'So, the candidates are down to Sakura and Shikamaru with Ino and Shino as secondary choices. If I could manage to have Shikamaru reach his full potential, the trouble would be more than worth it many times over, but with him considering just about every activity beyond thinking as "troublesome", actually succeeding in that would likely be "troublesome" '_ she though with a slight mental smile, more importantly she questioned wether she could or was even the right person to try to get him to reach his potential, loosing the smile '_no he is probably better left to someone more experienced with making use of his specialty' _ something she had barely seen used herself.

_'Could I get Shino to be sociable enough to lead the team? She was sure she could get him out of his shell.' _Smiling at the thought of using that expression about the bug user. '_But I´m not as positive about getting him to realise his intelligence as a team leader, his logic is a good thing in general, but a leader needs to go beyond that and Hinata certainly wouldn´t push him there, Naruto might try but he wouldn´t be able to argue Shino´s logic well enough. And his specialty just wasn´t something she could work with much.'_

Unlike the others, Ino might be chosen thanks to her family specialty rather than despite it, there was no end of uses she could think about that might be possible to develop from it..._ 'But again, Ino is too much of a boss rather than leader... And wouldn´t that just be perfect together with Shino? To pressure the bug user to go beyond the logical and actually lead?'_

_Back to Sakura then, could I work out her tendency to freeze up under pressure? Yes she was almost certain she could, and while different, she had already worked away much of the same problem with Hinata, it took effort but wasn´t really hard if you had enough time. So what else, she´s a bit too much of a theory person and not nearly enough little miss action girl, no I think the big thing there is probably more that she´s never learned or got used to "thinking in the middle of the storm", experience and simply more and more aimed training should take care of that._

_And it really would be nice to have someone with my own specialty around, while Hinata can probably become decent with genjutsu, Naruto will likely struggle with it for many years, might not ever handle it well, though he might be able to bruteforce some techniques.'_

And again she was slightly surprised at how she was already thinking about how to train Sakura and get her integrated into the team...

_'Guess I already made my decision huh... So, how then should I go about getting her into the training with Hinata and Naruto, and preferably more than just the training...'_

She looked at the long list of notes, the many things that ought to be done and the many things that might be a good idea, all of it to improve the rest of the class of her apprentices.

_'Mmm, I think I just figured out what the Hokage was hinting at, troublesome indeed.'_ She ended the thought with a hint of a smirk. And it gave her the obvious solution to her question.

She had already worked a bit at the academy before, at the time she was sent to pick up Hinata for enrollment, and with the clearly implied support of the Hokage and Iruka reasonable as always, setting up some sort of advanced optional class at the academy, it should be fairly easy.

And she had actually missed teaching since Kakashi´s course ended...

Shifting her thoughts to a much more sobering subject she started thinking about what could be done for the Uchiha boy, after a long moment she realised with some distress that she had not heard of anyone doing anything for him since the massacre.

_'That´s a mistake of epic proportions! And just some extra training certainly wont be enough.'_

And even if it would, she didn´t have the time for the kind of focus that would be needed, and he would be unlikely to go well with Naruto and Hinata on any permanent basis. '_No, my way of doing things just wont work for him, it has to be someone else, Kakashi would be a good option if it was just a matter of training, but his personality would do little to help, might even make things worse!'_

After thinking a bit she smiled '_Maito Gai however, he has already taken on the Lee boy with the inability to use anything but taijutsu as something of a personal project. His annoyingly enthusiastic personality might actually get through to Sasuke.'_

Rock Lee could probably use a highlevel sparring partner good with ninjutsu so he could get more used to facing it, and Lee´s determination and optimism left few untouched, and his personality was no less caring than determined. After a bit of further thought about the possible options she concluded that Gai almost surely was by far the best alternative, so the question now was what the best way to making it happen would be.

She could suggest it to the Hokage of course, but as with Naruto, him getting too involved with a single shinobi in training, that would be less than optimal for his political clout, to say the least, even if it concerned the last loyal survivor of the famed Uchiha clan.

No, it would be better to approach Gai in person and simply make the suggestion and provide the reasons and motivations without holding back, under his looney surface he was a very caring man and one who appreciated directness. '_Could I perhaps offer some sort of favour in return? Based on what´s been said so far, he will probably form a genin team with Lee, Tenten and Hinata´s cousin Neji when they graduate, I can´t really do that much for Lee, and I wouldn´t dare to interfere with another Hyuuga, so maybe I could include Tenten with the other classes?_

_She seems to be going for an armed style taijutsu, mainly using those weapon scrolls her family makes so well, fast for her age and halfdecent with her taijutsu but not much else..' _frowning at that and at how she would risk becoming yet another overspecialised shinobi just waiting for the opponent she is unable to use her skills against, and fail, probably dying in the process...

_'Yes, she would definitely have to make sure Tenten got a bit more versatility into her repertoire!'_

She had not shown much inclination towards genjutsu, although that might be for lack of a chance, her ninjutsu was completely focused on her weapons and scrolls, well at least she seemed to have decent chakra control and far more than average of it, even as young as she was she already had more than many adults, even now almost as much as Kakashi... That should at least come in handy and allow developing something.

* * *

-*Next day*-

Getting up early, she went to find Gai, knowing that at this time he would always be in his usual place training Lee, '_or at least passing through that area' _ she thought with more than a little sarcasm, thinking about his crazy "-if I cant do this I´ll run around the village 10 laps and if I fail that I´ll do X hundreds of push ups and..." style of training and much more annoyingly, living.

Gai and Lee were doing some light sparring when she approached, which in their case meant striking hard enough to be extremely painful for any normal human, even if not quite enough to break their bones. Well, mostly at least.

Seeing her coming Gai motioned to Lee to back off and then told him to run ´a few´ laps around the training field to get properly warmed up. "I see the unquenchable power of youth has brought you here again Kurenai-san, do you need a refresher course or perhaps you would like to extend your skill further in my chosen art?"

"While it would be nice to improve more I´m not sure excelling in the Gouken would do that for me" she said with a friendly smile, he was after all one of those she counted among her friends even if not a close one, especially after she had spent some time training with him to become proficient in another taijutsu style "but no, I´m here about something quite different, being around the academy class my apprentices are in has made me realise how poorly the village has responded to the situation of Uchiha Sasuke."

"I see, well I can´t disagree with you there." Gai said in a tone very different from his usual antics, "So then, what have you decided that we should do about it?"

That made her laugh a bit, and certainly cheered her up, despite her avid dislike of getting up this early, and that´s probably why he did it, always mr nice guy indeed.

"You know I can´t decide for you, but I was thinking that he could use a bit more direct support, and if that is combined with some extra training, at least chances are better that he survives his severe desire for vengeance. I´m already busy enough that I would be foolish to try something personally, and I very much doubt I would do him much good either, I think he needs something more... intrusive, to get past his bullheaded determination that nothing can be fine until he has his revenge."

"And instantly you thought of me, I´m flattered" he replied with a wide smile. "I´m sure I could add him to the training I´m already doing with Lee..."

"Actually I was thinking something more... complete and formal, just training wont be enough to get him out of his depression, did you know that there´s been barely any serious attempt to even try to help him through the mess?"

"Ah, of course, with noone else left of his clan, the only one way that could get him outside support aside from direct intervention of the Sandaime would be that HE asked for it, and the honor of the Uchiha clan is almost as strict as the Hyuuga, and even less practical." Gai said with a frown.

"I expect noone truly realised that, considering how rare it is, actually more like unheard of, for a clan to be reduced to a single survivor overnight." after a moment of introspection he went on. "More complete and formal you say, I assume you mean I should take him on as a second apprentice alongside Lee?"

"Yes, I think that would be what he needs, and it would also allow Lee a skilled sparring partner, as well as an opponent that lets him practice against someone already decently skilled in ninjutsu and it would also allow you to train someone in the things that Lee can´t handle."

"Ah yes, of course I will do this, as the eternal hero it is my absolute duty to fan the flames of youth especially for those whose flames have been so badly disturbed! Yosh, it´s decided! Sasuke will be my second apprentice and he will become one of the greatest shinobi of Konoha in his generation!"

"In return for you doing me this favour..."

"Please, I would have done this already if I had merely thought of it!"

"I know that but the fact remains that I brought it to your attention and asked it of you."

"Very well, guess I´ll owe you one then. So, what did you have in mind?"

"About Lee´s class, I´ve heard that you´re looking at taking on him along with Hyuuga Neji and Tenten as a genin team on their graduation?"

"Correct, it wont be balanced team certainly, but all three have better than average strength in

their specialties so I expect them to become a good team eventually. And of course, it was not entirely easy to come up with a good team from Lee´s class." he ended with with a less than happy face at the thought of how that class was so filled with inept wannabe´s.

"I wouldn´t dare involve myself with another Hyuuga, especially not someone like Neji who is already very good at the Jyuuken, their family specialty, and I rather doubt I could improve Lee much, you know well of my distaste for overspecialisation, but Lee seems to be an exception, clearly improving more by focusing completely on just the Gouken, however from what I have seen of Tenten, I believe training with me would be beneficial, I could add at least a bit to her taijutsu and probably a lot to her ninjutsu and perhaps also a little to her genjutsu and probably her overall skills somewhat as well. It should certainly help to balance out the team a bit"

"That, would be really helpful" he responded with a thoughtful smile and slow nod.

"While the extra classes that I will be starting up at the academy will be mainly for those of Hinata´s age, I could easily make an exception for her, and I think she would easily fit in with my training of Hinata and Naruto, if it goes that far, training which will hopefully soon also include Haruno Sakura."

"Oh, so the Hokage got you to pick the third teammember for your genin team this early already..."

"Sakura eh? Mmm, smart, talented with genjutsu, good control and has a pretty good chance at becoming good with ninjutsu, can be a bit meek though but I expect you can fix that considering how much you´ve improved the ever blushing Hinata, hmm so you´re looking to her for a future leader of the team then I guess?"

"That´s one of the things I´m hoping for yes, Naruto is really far too unfocused for it although I think he will improve a lot eventually, with strong emphasis on ´eventually´ and while Hinata´s training as clan heiress allows her to lead decently she wont do it naturally and without hesitation for a long time yet."

"So, who would have been your second choice?"

"Ah, actually that was rather ´troublesome´" her emphasis on Shikamaru´s trademark expression got a good chuckle from Gai. "And beyond Shikamaru with his slowpoke attitude, my best bet for an allrounder was Shino and my last pick overall was Ino." that got a raised eyebrow from Gai, "Well I think her family specialty might go well together with my genjutsu."

"Yes of course, it is an advanced way of affecting minds after all, but that would have left you with Hinata as the team leader... And your other choice was to get closer acquainted with the creepy crawlies of the Aburame clan, how interesting I never would have guessed your preferences in such a direction." he said with a smile overflowing with mischief.

_'What an impossibly annoying person'_ she thought while still laughing at his suggestion. "Well then, now that you´ve done your heroic duty to raise morale, I have a few suggestions regarding the others in your selected team if you can drag your mind into the civilised world?"

Getting an amused snort and a clearly affirmative nod she went on, "I know Neji will probably be opposing anything outside of his family specialty, but I think you should still try to push him to develop other skills as well, as good as he is with Jyuuken I´m fairly sure his chakra control is good and I expect he could probably learn at least some additional ninjutsu, probably a bit of genjutsu as well, fairly easily."

"Mmm, sounds like decent enough idea, I just have to remember doing it, I´ve got used to keeping with nonchakra skills mostly since I started training Lee." Gai replied after a moments thought.

"And while I agree with Lee´s specialisation with the Gouken, I think it would be a good idea to additionally improve his skill with weapons, especially ranged weapons, as well as the more general skills of a shinobi like tools, stealth, observation and mobility, as he can only rely on the skills of regular people I expect he will need additional training in those areas."

Another, slightly longer moment of thought and then Gai nodded. As usual it was more a matter of getting him to notice things than to push him into doing anything about it, that he took care of by himself, very well indeed.

* * *

-*A few days later*-

Kurenai looked around and noticed how the area surrounding the house had sprouted even more patches of flowers since the last occasion she had taken time to actually look. There were also several areas with other plants, one of which Hinata was currently busy taking care of.

She walked over "Really nice Hinata... I was wondering what these others are though?" vaguely gesturing at the areas of plants that was clearly not just there to look nice.

"I t-thought I would make more of that healing salve now that there´s three of us, N-naruto heals really quickly and y-you rarely get hurt, but better have it than not... And I was thinking about experimenting with a few plants as well."

"Oh that sounds interesting, and thank you that´s kind of you to think ahead like that. Do you want me to ask Naruto to help you?"

Hinata gave a short not quite laugh and shook her head "N-No, he´s really bad at weeding anything that isn´t flowers, he´s awful at seeing what is weeds." she smiled slightly "A-And he´s busy anyway right now."

"Oh, what did he find to occupy himself with today then?" that was a more serious question than it seemed like, Naruto sometimes showed himself to either be reckless or simply have a blatant disregard for common sense on things to be -busy- with.

"Dont worry-" Hinata smiled widely "-i pulled a seam really badly yesterday and today when I was going to fix it he asked if I could show him how to sew, so I found some cloth to practise with and showed him a-a-and then he told me to get going and that h-he would fix the seam when he was good enough." she ended with a blush.

A blush that made Kurenai wonder for a moment "What exactly was it that you pulled a seam on?

"E-erhm... panties..."

Kurenai giggled, after a moment getting Hinata to join, oh yes that was definitely Naruto, he probably wouldn´t even realise that Hinata might get embarassed. A long moment later she asked "How is that going?" in this context she didn´t have to specify what she was referring to, Hinata´s shyness or whatever it should be called was something they had been openly working on for a long time now.

"B-Better... I-I know when we graduate, w-whenever there´s a mission away from the village, a team will have a s-single room or tent more often than not, and rarely much space, I promise I -will- be able to handle it before then... E-Even i-if it´s j-just b-b-boys on the t-team."

"Good." she didn´t say anything about how Naruto would be the only boy on her future genin team at least, Hinata needed to be prepared for more beyond that, and it could be a nice surprise, although Kurenai expected her to figure it out long before actually graduating.

"A-A-and Anko has been helping me as well."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow "Do I want to know in what way?" while asking she thought that it was great if Hinata had managed to talk about it with someone else than her, and for all her flaws, Anko was often a very good person to confide in.

Hinata looked sideways, blushed slightly "M-maybe n-not." making Kurenai sigh slightly and amend her thoughts with the fact that Anko also gave the definition of -excentric- a whole new meaning.

Before either of them got to say anything else Naruto dashed up to them like the whirlwind he tended to be "Hey look, I fixed them! Oi, Hinata try them on and see if they´re good now!"

While Hinata went beetred and unable to say anything, Kurenai made sure to catch his attention and calmly said "Not right here and now Naruto, let me see..." she looked them over, noticing that of course it just had to be the probably only pair of panties Hinata had that might be called excessively -girly-, that she had bought on a dare from Anko, the seam had indeed been fixed, it was clear where it had torn but the repair looked surprisingly decent for someone who apparently had done little sewing before this.

It was interesting, if Naruto didn´t too consciously think about something he would often end up at least with a halfdecent solution if he had at least something to base himself on, and sometimes far better than that, the question she still wasn´t certain about was wether it was because he was unintelligent but with a very good intuition, intelligent but conditioned not to stand out or simply unused to consciously thinking about things and messing it up because of it.

From what she had seen so far, she leaned mostly towards a combination of the second and third option and had simply rejected lack of intelligence as the cause, as with some practise he had certainly showed to at least not being unable with things requiring intelligence. Although strong intuition still felt like it might be true regardless. And as usual, if you showed him something useful and practical and let him get on practising it, he tended to succeed quite quickly.

"Pretty good, why don´t you leave them on Hinata´s bed and she can try them later ok?"

"Sure!" and was gone in a flash after a quick smile to both of them.

Kurenai looked with some amusement at Hinata who looked back and with a sigh admitted "O-ok s-so n-not g-g-good enough y-yet. At l-least I d-didn´t f-faint." causing a shared little laugh from them.

After giving Hinata a moment to get back to normal she asked "I was thinking about maybe asking Sakura to join some of your training, she has a good talent for genjutsu, it would be a pity to waste it. Would that be ok by you, not cause any problems or anything?"

Hinata said nothing for a moment while thinking "She´s a bit... ehrm" Kurenai nodded, understanding what she meant "B-but I think it would be ok... S-she can be n-nice."

* * *

-*A week later*-

Kurenai was decently satisfied while watching her new students begin to leave, getting an official part time assignment at the academy and allowed to set things up as she pleased had been even easier than she had expected, apparently the Sandaime had sent a little nudge to both Iruka and the headmaster indicating that she was acting on his behalf and had free reign.

Once again teaching a larger group had been a bit straining even though this first time had been mostly getting to know her students and testing them, she wasn´t really used to large groups of -children- even if she was used to dealing with Kakashi and Gai both of which could be quite on the childish side at times, and getting used to Naruto had in many ways been equal to getting used to at least a handful of others. But a large group of them was still something new and had taken some adjusting.

She was a bit mixed on the attendance, while this was expressly an optional class for those of Naruto´s and Hinata´s class, several of those she had hoped would join had not, but at least her little deal with Gai had worked out smoothly, adding the one year older Tenten as one of a few exceptions. And it was a pleasant surprise seeing her act friendly towards both her apprentices.

She was a bit surprised about how the Hokage had been the one to send a little note suggesting making an exception for four others, one year -younger-. Although she had no problem seeing the logic in that, even if they were young, all of them were at the head of their own class, and all four of them had instantly accepted the offer when given it.

And she had realised that at least one reason for the Hokage to push her this direction was probably because of how her apprentices class held a whole bunch of children from important clans, and adding the Senjuu cousins, as well as the Meioh and the Kamizono kids from the class below, she would cover a surprisingly large part of the clans that sent their kids to the academy. She had a few suspicions on why, but the obvious one was that the Hokage wanted to make sure these kids were no pushovers when they graduated.

She reminded herself that she had to check the ratings and notes about the four younger, she still had not had time for that and especially the Kamizono boy was interesting as he seemed a potential genjutsu talent, he was certainly intelligent enough for it.

She sighed slightly, '_except of course I´m still missing a few of them' _ wondering how she could come up with a way to entice Chouji and Shikamaru among others to join up, preferably soon. Sasuke´s absence was not surprising, but Gai had assured her not to worry about it, that Sasuke would soon see the bright light of youth calling him out to achieve even greater heights with the assistance of Kurenai in addition to himself.

At least Sasuke had been very easily convinced into accepting becoming Gai´s apprentice along with Lee, and she was oh so thankful that she didn´t have to get involved in that herself.

She had fourteen so far, and was aiming to get the twenty that would include all those she thought were good prospective shinobi. '_Perhaps I should ask Naruto how to get them to sign up as well?'_ she thought with amusement, she was quite sure he would be able to come up with something, the only real question was wether it would be a -good- something or not.

"Ah Sakura, could I have a word with you?" she caught the girl in the pretty red dress and bubblegum-pink hair as she was passing, startling her a little.

"Eh... Yes?" Sakura didn´t look quite like a deer caught in the headlights but she had certainly not been expecting Kurenai to adress her after class had ended.

"Two things, I´ve noticed how you are a natural talent with genjutsu and was wondering if perhaps you might be interested in some additional practise with it?" she certainly caught Sakura´s attention completely she noticed.

"Your scores on theory are superb, but your practicals could really use some improvement, and joining some of my training with Naruto and Hinata should easily take care of that while we get your talent a bit of development, so, are you interested?"

Inner Sakura was practically chanting "_Getting kickass stronger, HELL YEAH!.!_" and while Sakura was a bit torn, mostly due to a certain suspicion popping up, in the end inner Sakura´s determined ranting did have quite a lure and won out.

Even if what she actually said was a rather tame "I am." and a tentative nod.

"Great, it will be nice to teach someone with the same talent as myself, now then over to the second matter" she went on with a much more serious tone "No more lean diets Sakura." ending with a stern look down at the girl.

"Wha... B-but-"

"No. Listen, first of all it´s a simple fact that children needs to eat a lot, including fat. Secondly, you wont have a chance to become a good kunoichi if you stunt your growth by not eating enough, it will severely reduce how much chakra you have and you will remain physically weak and wont even have the energy to train properly. Thirdly, I don´t expect you wish to remain... flat, and if you don´t eat enough, and in this case especially enough fat the only remedy for that tends to be getting pregnant, and since you´re training to become shinobi I assume you´re not expecting to do that?"

"Eh, ehrm... No..." Sakura said very meekly while blushing severely.

"And fourthly, once I get you training, I can assure you that there will be no risk at all for you to get fat where you shouldn´t be, you wont stay thin like now but would you consider a physique like mine or, let´s say Akiko´s to be a bad result?"

Sakura looked at Kurenai´s rather impressive physique, not lean no, but the words impressively beautiful, not to forget wellshaped, seemed to fit very nicely and she had actually envied Akiko´s build several times, wishing for it for herself. Being told that she had actually actively prevented any chance at such had had her almost stunned for a while, seeing that Kurenai was still waiting for an answer she shook her head in an emphatic and very clear -no-.

A moment later she realised what kind of training Akiko did and blanched a bit at the thought of using the obstacle course that much and the results of that. The response of inner Sakura to that was a scornful "_Bah, getting ready to bail out on getting strong for real already just because you can´t take a little dirt, sweat and a few bruises?_" a moment of annoyance at herself later Sakura had locked on target for the future with far more determination than probably ever before.

Although the targets in question was not quite clearcut, mostly a messy combination of want a pretty figure, become a strong shinobi and her already existing but not quite as strong ambition to simply learn. But the combination of ambition, vanity and potential additional acceptance was still a surprisingly strong background.

"Good, now I would like you to tell this to Ino as well, it´s no better for her than it is for you."

"Eh, yes sensei." just as she was about to turn "Oh and sensei, I think you better put up a written schedule in the classroom, since you´re doing your classes different days every other week, it´s not complicated but I bet there´s several that will mistake which week it is."

"Ah, thank you Sakura, I´ll make sure to do that, and I´ll do something even better as well and make sure the last teacher of the day always reminds you." '_Definitely a good choice.'_


	9. Insights

A/N:

A new big chapter, with a slightly different focus for most of it, with some more noticeable development and getting ready to move on. Next few chapters will take a bit longer though, if nothing else because I would prefer not to make them too long or too many before starting to reach the main part of the story, yet still include the parts I want there.

Oh and just to remind anyone that might have forgotten it:

This is fanfiction.  
Anyone that believes the material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical help as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

* * *

-*o*-

Insights

'_Who would have known that getting Shikamaru interested enough was only a matter of making him fear that he couldn´t remain just ahead of Naruto in the rankings if he didn´t know enough of what Naruto was learning elsewhere?_'

And while Naruto may not have known or understood why that worried the otherwise laidback boy, Kurenai had soon realised that Shikamaru´s mom was the reason, no ill will against Naruto, just a very strong determination about her son at the very least not getting bypassed by the one who had finished last the two first years. And Shikamaru´s mom could be scary when she was disappointed!

Just the second week and she had already managed to get all she hoped for except Sasuke to sign up, even she had expected it to take longer. She had even tried a bit more to get recruits from the other half of the class, but based on their reactions, she had to wonder why they were even in the academy. Getting better? They didn´t care enough for that it seemed.

* * *

-*o*-

"Yes! YES! I did it, I did it! Ahahahahaahahah" Naruto was doing quite the victory dance, looking crazy, or perhaps that should be, looking crazier than usual. "Woooheee, I beat Sasuke bastard! ... it really worked!"

On the ground, a slightly ruffled Sasuke was smoldering with annoyance. Nowadays, taijutsu sparring at the academy meant he had to go up against Kiba, Ryu, Hinata, Shino and lately also Naruto to get any real challenge, but excepting Hinata (and damned if that wasn´t annoying) he was really not used to being completely taken down like this by anyone outside of the teachers, and even they rarely won ever since his Sharingan had activated during a friendly threeway match with Gai and Lee that got a lot more intense than was probably meant...

Probably at least, with Gai and Lee you never really could say for certain. It certainly took Sasuke a few times with the duo to get used to their extremeness.

But now Naruto had managed to trick him completely, followed by one of his worst losses ever! Ok, maybe not one of the worst ever but it felt a bit too close to that right now at least.

Sure, Naruto had gotten far better, at first when he changed away from the academy style, he was rather messed up for a few months, with force of habit making him do far too many mistakes, especially once a spar got heated, but when past that, when he started applying his new style (styles?) more completely and got away from the mistakes, he had improved enough that now he was one of those who could give even Sasuke a halfdecent workout. That however was not something making Sasuke any happier at the moment.

"You got lucky!" his angry reply to Naruto´s showing off finally came.

Calming down enough to happily reply "Well duh! Of course I got lucky, even the teachers have trouble beating you since you got those spooky eyes working! But what I´m happy about is that it wasn´t **just** luck! I figured that no matter how good those eyes make you at predicting moves, some part of you still have to actually do the predicting stuff and it just cant be no limit at all to how much it can handle all at once so I kinda figured that if tried using as many fast moves all together as I could I should be able to overload the eye thing and knock you out by finalising with a move coming out of nowhere while you were still busy reacting to all the other attacks that were mostly feints, and... and it worked! Yosha!" ending with throwing his hand up in the air again.

Not even halfway through Naruto´s little speech, Sasuke blinked with surprise, suddenly his anger was just gone from hearing Naruto explaining, how he had actually done it. Naruto wasn´t more skilled or faster and he certainly didn´t have anything like the Sharingan, but he had actually **thought** about it, sure it was half guessing, but it was still a surprisingly good piece of analysis, and this from the brat who had the worst grades in the class not at all that long ago.

Sasuke realised that he had been foolish to dismiss him because of that, like he had once dismissed Kiba for being stupid. Big mistake that had been. Stupid and not intelligent being two very different things was a lesson he would not forget.

And he also got a few very nasty thoughts about how if Naruto could come up with a way to fool the Sharingan, well, there was that certain other user of those eyes, and Sasuke himself at his best could be almost as inventive as Naruto if he tried hard, ok really hard maybe as Naruto was just too unpredictable to match like that...

It also made him wonder about the style Naruto had switched to... how long ago was it... it had made quite a splash when the orphan had suddenly given Iruka-sensei a note that he would no longer be training the academy-style... about two years maybe, at least not a full three years, thinking back, Sasuke realised just how big the difference was, and the fact that he didn´t even know what style Naruto had switched to... and how he could do it before getting taken up as an apprentice...?

"Hey Uzumaki-moron, what´s the style you´re using?"

"Hehee, wanna find out what took you down?" in a more normal and serious tone he went on "Well, my primary style is now the Raiken, it´s totally built on speed and it´s really great, makes it so much easier to fight effectively! Kurenai-sensei thought it would suit me and she sure was right about that!"

"Primary? More than one? And wait, didn´t you switch before you became her apprentice?"

"Ehm, well you know how she was training Hinata, well Hinata dragged me with her and Kurenai said it was ok if I tagged along so since then I did at least a quarter of the time they trained... And yeah, Kurenai said the academy style was hurting my taijutsu so I had to drop it completely, but she taught me some other neat stuff instead, ehm, the Juunan Taiso and Ten no mori..."

"But... Juunan taiso..."

"Yeah it´s a fighting style built on the excercises with the same name, it´s very flowing, with more power than the Raiken and no jerky parts or needing any resets between moves... although that still makes it a bit weaker than it could be but better to hit lots of times with some strength than rarely with lots ey? ... Ehm, and well the Ten no mori is a bit odd, I really thought I would suck with it since it uses chakra so completely integrated with it, but it actually helped me get a little better with chakra control instead..." he trailed off when he saw Sasuke had become thoughtfully distant.

"What?"

Sasuke almost startled at the question, again Naruto explaining had made him realise something he should have thought of years ago, he and Itachi both used the Uchiha taijutsu and while it was very good and fully integrated weapons, mobility and the advantages the Sharingan provided, being a very complete style, but Itachi would know exactly what he was doing, he wouldn´t even need Sharingan to anticipate his every move...

He had already learned a bit of Gai-sensei´s Gouken, but it didn´t integrate very well with the Uchihastyle, so he essentially had to choose style long before actually starting an attack on a target. Gai had even gone far enough to say that he shouldn´t try to combine them and rather just learn a few useful moves to complement the Uchihastyle.

Because of that and hearing similar from others, he had thought that the same problems would appear in combining any styles, and here Naruto had seemed to fight almost seamlessly despite using at least three different styles...

"Kurenai helped you combine those styles?"

"Oh yeah, she´s great at that, she´s using at least a dozen styles herself and moves between them so fast it´s hard to see what styles each move comes from or even that they **are** different styles."

_'A dozen?.! ...At least?.!_ _ And yet the skill the woman was __**known**__ for her expertise in was genjutsu?.?_' This was mostly the reason he had not signed up for the extra classes she was giving at the academy for a while now... He had assumed that getting direct fulltime access to Gai-sensei from around the same time would be more useful and that Kurenai´s classes would only distract from his time with Gai...

Not to mention how his interest in genjutsu, the -weakest- shinobi skill was less than minimal, at least beyond the parts his sharingan would eventually be able to do. Gai and Lee had both told him he was wrong not to sign up for it, but had not pressed him on it, instead simply been nice about it and accepted his choice.

Now he was pretty sure that had been a bad choice. And he had thought the Ten no mori style was just for fighters good at chakraboosting, something requiring very highend chakra control, not even he himself was good enough for that to be truly realistic as he could just barely do very little of it, and here Naruto was obviously using the style without being remotely close to being able to use that sort of boosting, not with his lousy control. Damnit, he was getting totally upstaged by Naruto for goodness sake!

Having learned the Juunan taiso exercises so long ago he couldn´t even remember how small he was at the time, it was as if he had known it forever, and yet he had never even heard about an actual fighting style based on it! '_Shit, I really need to get my act together!_' He was definitely getting enrolled in Kurenais extra classes, and before the end of the day!

"So, how about you show it to me again ey?" he then said with a wide, evil grin.

"Oh yeah gladly! You better believe it! Because you´re going down again!" Naruto answered with a grin of his own.

Minutes later, both were sitting on the ground, looking more than a little ruffled, both panting and both with big smiles, comparatively to what was normal for them at least. Naruto was happy because he had managed to repeat his success, Sasuke was happy because he had almost managed to counter Naruto, and was fairly sure he had figured out how to do it even if he wasn´t quite good enough yet to be sure that he could do it reliably, at worst he now at least knew what to look for when someone was trying to overload the Sharingan prediction ability. And that, he knew that might be very important one day.

* * *

-*o*-

In a way Sasuke dreaded this, but he had made the decision and now he was going through with it. He followed what seemed to be almost half the usual class of his year into the classroom, he also recognised Tenten from the class one year older and two younger boys and two younger girls he thought was in the class one year below his own. '_The Senjuu siblings... No, not siblings, cousins I think? They certainly looked more like siblings though.'_ easily recognisable due to being the first generation in quite a while from that clan to once more become shinobi, '_and...'_ He couldn´t quite place the second girl, but he vaguely recalled hearing the second boy called Shion sometime.

Seeing Kurenai standing next to the teachers desk he walked up "I would like to join your classes sensei."

She smiled slightly, turned over to pick up a paper from the desk "Here, I need you to fill in this form to make it offical, but you can do that at home later, just jump in anyway for now ok."

She had heard of Sasuke´s loss yesterday from Naruto and from the way he had told it, she had almost expected Sasuke to show up. Not quite this soon though.

"Thank you." he had to push himself a bit to remember to be polite, Gai had berated him on how he turned to singlesyllable responses too easily with everyone, and he didnt want to make a bad impression on a new teacher. Especially one he now hoped might just be able to give him the key to defeating Itachi, or at least part of the key. And he most certainly did not want to risk getting lectured about it by Gai-sensei again, **ever**.

Once everyone had settled down Kurenai started things for the day "So, we´re going to look a bit deeper into how we use hand seals now, someone who can explain the basics, mmm, how about you Sasuke?"

He startled slightly at getting thrown into the center of attention so quickly "Ehm, sure... The seals are like an alphabet for molding chakra, where you link the seals with a specific shaping and together with mental visualisation, tweaking of a sequence you can make them -spell out- a technique, making it far easier to perform, especially if it is a technique that was created by someone else. Mmm, in theory you can ignore the actual hand signs but it tends to mess up visualisation and make shaping much harder so very few actually can manage it unless it´s something they have trained very hard with. Adapting it to onehanded signs, using them with a weapon or other variations are not entirely uncommon though."

He took a longer breath while thinking for a moment, slightly surprised that noone interrupted him "And the most problematic part of them are usually to figure out the most effective seals to use for a technique since most have dozens potentially correct sequences all with more or less differences in the details of the end result and the complexity of the seal sequence... That´s what you wanted?"

"Thank you, yes it was a good summary of nearly all of it. The academy teaches them more mechanically, by rote and I wanted to add both a little background and theory as well as some practical training and additional knowledge and flexibility."

40 minutes later, Sasuke was impressed by how much had been crammed into the lesson, despite seemingly being relaxed and unhurried, even slightly meandering across subjects when the topic edged close to something else.

Kurenai had shown how to add slight variations to the shaping of the standard signs to allow additional control and flexibility for techniques, had shown a way to make for easier practise and gone over the minimal basics for trying to figure out the seal sequence for a newly created technique, with a promise of repeats and expanding on it later.

He was actually being attentive and interested, and now it was truly apparent that the academy norm was based on if not perhaps slow learners then at least certainly not on fast learners. And since there was no need for the basics in this class, the pace could be set quite high. And he had noted that even Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru kept busy and fully part of the class, far from the trio´s usual laziness. And Chouji didn´t even open a single package of snacks in the whole time... And that was surely amazing if anything.

After the 10 minute pause it was time for the next part.

Kurenai stepped up "Second part today will be on a subject that we will be coming back a lot for to one degree or another, it´s about chakraboosting yourself. Nearly all shinobi do it to some degree through training but most of that is indirect and unconscious, this is also the basic part of a lot of the academy training, as it is the very core of the difference between shinobi and non-shinobi. You can do it much better if you also practise how to do it consciously. And some of you, like Sakura and Akiko, have enough control to take it to a much higher level where it can become a very valuable tool. And some taijutsu styles makes heavy use of it, and with the extra practise those styles can become far more effective."

"So, what is it for then? The answer is, almost anything you can do with your body. You can use it to jump higher, be stronger, move faster, hardening your body against damage, make your body heal faster... And in some ways, also using chakra externally for some things like charging a strike with chakra or expending it to shield against a strike or impact are quite similar even if they are commonly considered to be separate techniques rather than boosting."

Again, Sasuke found himself to listen with rapt attention as Kurenai went on with the theoretics and basics and then turn over to the practical side, he knew his knowledge on the matter was already well above what they would normally finish the academy with and this class was already going far ahead of this, not so much perhaps in absolute knowledge, but rather in how to apply it. Enough so that he was certain it was going well beyond what was the common level of teaching for genin in his own clan before its almost destruction.

It also made him wonder if he would able to use some of the more advanced parts, his control was well above average though still far beneath Akiko, much less Sakura, still though, he should have enough for some of the simpler and middling uses...

After another 10 minute break, it was time for a more -hands on- lesson. The part that was the original reason he had come, though he would return to the next class for **all** of the parts, that he knew for sure now.

Kurenai quickly went around and grouped together students mostly by 2s and 3s, setting each group to practise one thing or another that they had started on during previous sessions then walking over to Sasuke, placing herself so that she could keep an eye on the others while talking to him.

"Well then Sasuke, since I don´t really know neither what you want nor what you need or what you already have, I suggest we spar for a bit and then we can go from there?" Kurenai said with a smile which reminded Sasuke a bit too much of Naruto´s cheerful visage after his win against Sasuke.

He nodded and stepped aside in a ready stance, instantly getting a thoughtful not quite frown from Kurenai "Straighten your back, left foot forward a few cm, you have let the academy style infect the Uchiha-style center of balance, I´m surprised Gai didnt correct you on it?"

"Uhm, he mentioned it but I thought I had taken care of it..." he said while trying to find the stance he should use for optimal readiness.

"Ah, I see. He didn´t notice because he is so used to the Goken, which prefers things a bit different, mmm, ok try moving around a bit as if you were moving along the lines of a square without changing the way you´re looking in my direction."

"Like this?"

"Yes... You´re a bit too stifflegged to make full use of the mobility of your style and you need to learn how to better keep your opponent within your view while moving. Right then, stick with taijutsu only and come at me."

"Right..." Sasuke took a moment to try to shift more towards including her suggestions, getting a look of approval for it, then started several combinations of punches and kicks in rapid succession.

With not even a single attack actually hitting anything Kurenai didn´t want it to hit. And then after about half a minute she started attacking back, managing to get through Sasukes Sharingan-assisted defense almost right away, despite only using just enough force to merely mark a hit clearly and a few seconds later another one, quickly starting to force him to dodge sideways and backwards.

After another half minute she went more defensive again, then after a while switching between strong offense and defense apparently at random, then changing style and using less mobility but mixing moves more flexibly. Which caused the fight to become more off-on as Sasuke had to step away from attacks and then step back closer to do something himself.

And he was getting quite annoyed at still not having been able to get a real hit in, not even one, he had managed better than that even against Gai-sensei! And Gai was supposed to be better at taijutsu... But every time he started to get an understanding of her moves, she changed style completely, throwing him off again. Without the Sharingan predictive ability he would have been completely outclassed.

After a while longer Kurenai stepped back an extra pace and held up her hand "Ok for now... So lets see then, you´re definitely having issues with letting the academy style creep into the Uchiha style, that really messes up both your offense and defense but is also not surprising since you dont have a real master in your own style to practise with, I can certainly help you straighten that out even if it´s not a style I really use nor fully know... Also you seem to be a bit sloppy, especially with defense?" she lifted an eyebrow at him in question.

Sasuke scowled slightly "I´ve tried to use Goken moves for some things, it´s possible I´ve let that affect me where it shouldn´t, having the Sharingan activate may have contributed as well since I´m not quite used to it´s predictive ability even now."

"Hmm, it´s probably more than that, but it´s a good place to start fixing things. So the next big question, what kind of style do you want to have and what were you trying to get from the Goken?"

"...I´m not sure, but one thing I need is something that... Itachi cant predict easily even without Sharingan... And the Goken moves I wanted are special attacks that the Uchiha style doesn´t really have anything like."

Kurenai nodded, she had been expecting that to come up, she was still pleased that Sasuke didn´t seem completely obsessed about it, clearly an improvement despite not being even two months since Gai had taken him in. She was however rather unsure about how to handle Sasuke, he certainly didnt seem to benefit from many styles like Hinata, and a pure speedstyle like the Raiken Naruto was focusing on didn´t seem a good enough choice either, and he certainly couldn´t focus on the Ten no Mori like she was planning for Sakura since he couldn´t use the moves to full effect, considering the kind of perfectionist he was, had he been able to use it then the Jyuuken would probably have been perfect, but he couldn´t use it.

Though he could probably benefit from the parts of Raiken used to improve speed, but there was a clear risk that it could mess up his use of the Uchiha style even more... '_Or perhaps..._'

"Right, I think a good start for you would be simply going back to Ju Tai jutsu, to make sure you get rid of those pesky little bad habits, and Gai can also help you with that so it shouldn´t take too long, after that I can probably help you improve your family style quite decently, but you also need to get your speed up, the Raiken is good for that but it doesn´t really suit your overall style, however if you´re willing to work for it I think I may be able to suggest an alternative that should be very good for you."

"What do you mean?"

"None of the styles I´m good enough to teach really suits you enough to be a good complement to your current style, but I know one that does, it´s just a matter of us convincing the only one in Konoha good enough with it to teach you. I was already thinking of dragging her into my teaching a bit but your practise would most likely have to be more like what I did for Hinata earlier."

"Who and what style?"

"Anko Mitarashi´s Hebi-style has the speed and unpredictability you need and should be possible to combine quite well with the Uchiha style with a bit of work."

'_Snakestyle?_' Sasuke had heard about both the style and the woman using it, he was uncertain about the former and had an ingrained prejudice against the latter, but by now he also had heard many people agreeing that Kurenai was good at picking styles for people and he had heard that the snakestyle was supposed to be one of the more impressive ones.

"Ok I´ll try it, but what about when she aint around then?"

"Once you´ve started on it, I know enough to help you with it, and I´m sure you will be quite busy taking care of your flaws as well as improving your family style."

* * *

-*o*-

Finding the adress he had been told the previous day, Sasuke startled a bit at the size, not seeing anyone he walked up and spoke up "Pardon me?"

A moment later Naruto´s head peeked out through a window "Hiya Sasuke, go on through out the back, the girls are there and Kurenai went to pick up Crazy Snake Lady, I´ll be there in a moment."

Before Sasuke even had a chance to reply to the unflattering statement about his prospective teacher, Naruto was gone again so he walked in and made his way out to the backyard, seeing Hinata and Sakura talking he decided to wait away from them, Hinata was ok and Sakura was no longer intolerable at least but he still dreaded how she had been fawning on him not so long ago, certainly not wanting to risk giving her new ideas.

After barely a minute he heard a not quite argument approaching, or perhaps more like whining from one person met by overly reasonable determination. Almost like a patient parent telling a child that they really had to get going now.

"Ow... Hey I only had two more to eat, you could have waited for me to finish Nai-chan..." the tone was very whiny.

"You were already going to be late and I know you, those two would have become another twenty, so are you coming or do I have to carry you?" Kurenais answer was excessively reasonable.

"Yes please!" came the cheerful exclamation.

"Conscious or unconscious?" the reply was spoken in an utterly flat voice.

"Eehhehehe, maybe I´ll just walk by myself then?"

"Good choice." that seemed to finally end the argument.

Shortly after Kurenai appeared together with a woman Sasuke had seen before but until now not known who she was. When she saw him she turned and seemed like she was about to shake his hand, until suddenly snakes burst out from the arm of the trenchcoat.

Sasuke practically flew backwards and yet his arm was still caught by several snakes encircling it.

"Hiya kid, Nai-chan told me you might wanna learn some from little old me." she said merrily while the snakes withdrew and disappeared from a rather stunned Sasuke.

Kurenai facepalmed wearily "You said you were going to stop doing that..."

"I did? Nah I dont think so, too much fun. I probably said I wouldn´t do it to Naruto or Hinata again."

Kurenai froze for a moment "Damn, I think that really was what you said, I hate it when you´re right like that. Now be nice!" she said before going over to Sakura and Hinata, a moment later Naruto arrived in a dash, just barely avoiding trampling Sasuke down even more before he had even had a chance to get up.

"Hey stupid! Watch it!"

"Sorry bitchy Sasuke bastard, couldn´t see you down in the dirt like that!" Naruto shouted in cheerful reply as he bypassed Kurenai and screeched to a halt next to the girls a few seconds later.

Anko laughed and then leaned over and easily pulled him up and then with her over to a grassy area away from the house "Well kid, lets move over here and you get to show me your great skills."

The still slightly dazzled Sasuke got himself together "Those snakes?"

"Yeah? Some of them are part of the style, basic chakra constructs, the others are summons but you wont be getting that anytime soon no matter how good you may be, come on now kid, line up and get cracking! Make me bleed and I´ll get ya a bonus!" Anko grinned as she said it.

"Right..." with a good deal of trepidation Sasuke did -get cracking-.

A minute later he was quite certain he would not be getting any bonuses, no matter what that would have meant. Anko was a whirlwind, Sasuke was good enough to estimate that she probably wasn´t as good as Kurenai, but she was equally fast and she used it in a much more erratic style that included more movement, wether it was needed or not, and it played merry hell with his eyes attempts of prediction.

And those snakes lashing out at seemingly random times only made it far worse. His eyes were still just at the most basic level of activation, but he doubted any improvements would make enough of a difference by itself, which of course made it a **very** interesting style for him to learn.

After five minutes Anko broke off from a very thankful and tired Sasuke that had taken lots of hits, and unlike Kurenai´s marking hits which where painful enough, Anko had been much more forceful, Kurenai was good enough to afford using reduced force strikes in training, Anko probably wouldn´t even consider the idea regardless. He smiled grimly '_Perfect._'

"Aaw what a pity, you didn´t get to earn your bonus..." she leaned over and placed a slurping kiss on his cheek where he had taken a small cut from her fingernails and was bleeding very slightly "That will do for now."

Sasuke froze '_Ok her style is just perfect but she is also a complete nut... No, I´ll handle her one way or another._' he thought with increasing determination and looked up at his new sensei.

"Ooh good boy!" Anko said softly.

"That... That was a test?" he almost stuttered. And got a wide smile in return. '_APPEARS __**far**__ more crazy than she is._' he amended his previous thoughts.

"So, how´re we going to set this up then? I wont be around all the time so the best way is probably to do it like Nai-chan did with Hinata, when I´ve got time I make sure you find out and then you get there on time or have a damn good explanation for why not."

"Right..."

"And that brings me to the next thing, where´s best to train for you, here, the academy, with Nai-chan´s classes or something else?"

Sasuke cringed slightly at the thought of getting trashed like this in front of the other academy students, then he had an idea while thinking about where would be best to train "Is money an issue for how often you can train me?"

"Huh? Mmm well, Nai-chan´s gonna make sure I get basic instructor pay or something for the time spent but a girl can never have too much money, not that I´m about to sit down and wait in the village just to teach you no matter what the pay is, a girl needs her adventures you know..."

"Ok... How about we use the Uchiha training grounds and I pay you for a C-rank mission whenever you spend extra time with me?"

Anko blinked in a short moment of surprise "Aaw already smitten by my wonderful charm and want to spend all the time with me, how cute!"

Sasuke almost choked for a moment getting Anko to laugh.

She went on, seriously this time "Sure boy that sounds decent."

* * *

-*o*-

They arrived at the training area chatting amiably enough, just the fourth time since Sakura had been shanghaied into the training, or possibly playing the willing sucker, though she was rather pleased, correction she was extremely pleased at getting extra training, especially from someone who was good at her own best skill, even if it probably did mean she was going to get stuck with Naruto for a teammate, and totally not Sasuke, still though, after the last three sessions she had got to know Hinata better, finding her to be nice but shy, more surprisingly though she had found Naruto to be at least acceptable as well, no matter how annoying he could be at times.

Kurenai´s offer to those with good chakra control to get them some basic teaching by a medic had also been much appreciated. She had not even considered the option before, but now she was dead set on becoming as good with it as she could, after the medic that had taught them the first time had told her she might be able to become one of the best ever, that she actually had a real solid talent for it. She had never had even the slightest chance at becoming best ever at anything before.

While those with just the intelligence and control needed would learn the basics by rote, she and probably a couple others would then go on and start learning the full skillset of a medic-nin.

Kurenai greeted them and then went on with "Today you are going to train how to defend against my specialty, genjutsu, has the academy covered anything about this yet?" from the headshakes she got in return she sighed inwardly and cursed the academy for being so damned uneven at times, they should have been given at least the minimal basics by now!

"Very well then, genjutsu is the art of affecting the minds of surrounding people and to create illusions, there are good and bad points about both variants."

"Affecting minds directly is very efficient and allows great control, while illusions are harder to notice, so they are effective even against people you dont know about and can be used for other things like reducing how much sound is heard from you or make you more or less invisible, highend illusions can be very straining and require very good control while small and simple illusions almost any chakrauser can learn, meanwhile affecting minds has a more gradual difficulty level and rarely uses much chakra, but to even get started with mind affecting techniques has a much higher threshhold to it."

"First of all, I´ll show you a simple flower illusion that is good for practise, and Naruto, while you will probably have the same problem with this as with the bunshin technique, I still want you to know it and practise it because eventually your chakra control and genjutsu skill will improve enough that you can use it, if you have already practised with it then you will have a much easier time to get a useful level of skill with others as well."

After getting nods, Naruto´s with a bit of a frown added, she showed them the series of handseals and told them how to use them in molding the chakra release for this technique.

"Sakura, you already know a little genjutsu don´t you?" she got a tentative nod "Oh don´t worry there´s no problem in getting ahead a bit, just make sure not to try anything new without supervision ok? I´m also going to give you the first practise scroll for genjutsu later today, so you can get started for real."

"Ok!" came the answer from a now much more cheerful Sakura. She had still not got used to how reasonable Kurenai was as a teacher, the only other teacher that would be so generally accepting was Iruka, showing off in front of or heaven forbid upstaging one of the really unreasonable teachers would usually be just more or less **not** good.

Trying just a few times, Sakura quickly learned how to vary the illusion and had soon made several of wildly different looks, from the original tiny flower via a bouquet of different flowers to a small bush.

Hinata had to try several times but eventually managed to make a steady little flower. Naruto also tried, with not so much success, but after a number of tries managed a small and halftransparent looking thing that almost seemed to shine. On closer inspection, it was noticeable that it DID indeed shine.

"Excellent work Sakura, but I didnt expect any less of someone with such a talent in genjutsu, well done Hinata that was quick. And Naruto, you might be able to learn genjutsu faster than I thought, it´s weak but on so little practise it´s much better than what could be expected. Although I can assure you that learning control will give better results than bruteforcing it with that much chakra." Kurenai said, ending with a smile at a proudly smiling but also somewhat embarassed Naruto.

"Although an illusion with that much power in it, if you can change it enough to have the power converted better to light, you can use it to create chakra flares, a quite useful technique even if it´s not for most situations. Remind me to show it to you later."

"Now, any of you know the basic ways to break away from genjutsu?"

"Pain to distract you." Naruto blurted out quickly.

Just slightly ahead of Sakura adding "Internal chakra control and external dispelling."

"Correct, both of you. However, pain and momentarily halting your chakra flow to dislodge someone else´s control of it doesn´t work on illusions, and using pain to get rid of mind effects should not be done lightly, worst case you can´t see what you are really doing and might hurt yourself badly."

"Also, using external dispelling allows you to do it on others as well, so that is what we will focus on for now."

"Hold your hands in front of you, together if you attempt a dispel that you then apply to yourself, someone or something else by touch, or hands apart if you attempt an area dispel, now starting with the touch variant, generate chakra centered on your fingertips, not too much, just enough for a small burst, stabilise it, then maintain it while bringing your hand or fingers touching the target, where you release the control and push it into, through the target."

"For an area burst, you draw much more chakra, gather it into a ball between your hands, then release it equally in all directions, some can learn to release it with more focus and direction."

"I´ll be creating a few small illusions for you to practise on." while seemingly doing nothing, suddenly a number of pretty flowers seemed to grow up a few yards apart.

"Ano, sensei, d-doesn´t genjutsu require hand seals?" Hinata asked as so far all genjutsu she had seen had used them.

"Not for such minor illusions like these, and the better the one creating them, the less actual need there is for seals, but it´s generally better to use seals than not as it´s much too easy to burn through a lot of chakra for no good reason otherwise. At least until you get very good at it. Me, I´m a genjutsu specialist with a lot of chakra so for me it doesn´t really make a difference any longer. Sakura will also probably be able to drop the hand seals for most of the simpler ones within a not too distant future."

"Now, try the touch dispel on one illusion each to begin with." Kurenai said and gave a short explanation on the specifics.

Sakura succeeded on her first try, '_well'_ Kurenai thought, '_That wasn´t really odd considering the girls excellent control and great talent for genjutsu overall._' But also added a thoughtful wondering if it might also indicate that she was good at chakra manipulation overall, prompting herself to remember to test her on that later. What the teacher medic had said certainly also pointed in that direction.

Hinata managed after three tries although her second made the flower waver a bit as if seeing it through hot air.

Naruto´s attempts however seemed completely useless. After not even getting any reaction on the 20th try, Kurenai asked Hinata to see if she could see what happened with her Byakuugan while he tried again a couple of times.

"Mmm, sensei it looks like he forms it correctly but then as soon as he tries to move the charge, it looses cohesion instantly when any of that red chakra of his appears and then it just bursts apart before he can make it part of his touch. He might be able to manage if he does it very quickly between forming and touching but I-I d-doubt it." she said while unhappy about saying anything bad about Naruto, even though she knew by now that he much rather found out what was a problem so he could improve on it or work around it.

'_Red chakra?_' Sakura wondered what that was about. From what she had read, chakra was generally seen or detected as mainly and mostly blueish, was it something about the Byakuugan seeing it differently? '_No wait, she said it appears as something additional, Naruto has more than one type of chakra?.?.?_'

"I see, well then lets move on to the area dispel, I expect Naruto will do better on that then as it´s more dependent on the amount of chakra instead of controlling it."

While explaining the details, she proceeded to set up rows with neatly spaced illusionary flowers and directing each of them to try while standing at the end of one row.

Hinata managed it after a few tries, making the illusions up to a few paces away disappear, though clearly tiring her a bit in the process.

Sakura again succeeded on her first attempt, but wasn´t satisified and did it again, now with a fiercely determined face, this time dispelling the illusions almost 10 paces away. She breathed a bit heavy after it but with a content expression on her face.

When Naruto tried, at first it looked almost too good, she was actually seeing the sphere of energy forming between his hands, but when he released it, it sort of just fizzled out, just barely affecting the two closest illusions.

"Naruto, you did well forming the chakra, but you have to build it up while holding what you already have drawn out contained and then release it all in a clear and distinct burst, ok? Now then try again, with that much power I expect you will able to dispel very large areas, probably all over this field." that got a happy nod from Naruto along with greater concentration, a few moments of thought and starting another attempt.

At first it looked like last time, a strong buildup of slightly blue energy in a sphere, then she saw that there also seemed to appear more and more swirls and it almost seemed to sparkle...

'_Oh damn!_'

"Naruto, focus on pushing that away from you as strongly as you can NOW!" she nearly shouted.

The startled boy was used to following her orders by now and quickly thrust his hands forwards forcefully, making the sphere follow and fortunately then continue flying ahead while still retaining coherence until its underneath touched the ground, then it violently burst, almost like some ball lightning could.

Leaving a tiny crater in the ground and sending a small shockwave outwards, causing three of them to twitch at the feeling and eliciting a surprised yelp from Hinata who instantly put her hands over her eyes.

A few nearby illusions wavered and a single one dispelled.

Naruto was next to Hinata almost instantly with a hand on her shoulder "Hinata, you ok? I´m so sorry! What happened?"

Shakenly she replied "Ok... I´m ok Naruto..." then more steadily "I was... watching with the Byakuugan active, and when that thing went off it was almost like looking into the sun or someone throwing a flash grenade right in front of you, I´ll be fine in a moment." she opened her eyes just a tiny bit, squinting at him.

"But I think you will have more than a little work ahead of you." she added with an amused tone getting a small groan from Naruto.

"Yeah I guess I should be used to that by now. Well, nothing to do but train harder!" he ended with a determined frown causing the others some further amusement.

"Naruto, what exactly did you do?" Kurenai asked, wondering if she had seen correctly.

"Eh, well you said I had to contain it while building it up so I sort of figured that maybe if I give the chakra a little bit of twist it should be easier to keep in place until I wanted it released?"

'_Goodness, the boy was actually using shape manipulation on intuition, just like that!_' It had taken her weeks of training to manage it despite her teacher telling her she had a decent degree of talent for it.

"Naruto, I want you to remember how you did that, but I also want you not to do it again with any chakra you keep near yourself or expel against anyone not an enemy, ok?" quickly getting a nod in reply she went on "For the dispel to work, the chakra has to be a clean burst, without any shape manipulation added, because that makes it interact too directly physically." that got a completely lost look from Naruto and an interested one from Sakura.

Kurenai went on to try and explain better. "If you give the chakra shape or distinct motion it will affect it´s surroundings more as an object and less as energy. It´s extremely useful for creating advanced techniques dealing physical damage but few learn how to do it before they are at least chuunin, indeed many never learn it at all, relying completely on techniques created by others."

"Now, you will have to practise later how to work the area dispel, but I´m pretty sure we can take what you accidentally just made and turn it into a fairly powerful attack technique."

That got a loud and happy "Yatta!" from a grinning Naruto "Hey, does that mean I just created my first selfmade technique?"

"Nowhere near it, but it means you have the idea and concept for it. Now you just have to work hard to make it work. I´m sure it wont take more than a few years to complete." she smiled back with a hint of mischief showing as Naruto´s face fell from that information.

Getting back to being serious she added "Just make sure you never EVER mistake a dispel with the attack, you could kill yourself easily if you build up enough of those chaotic swirls in the burst."

"Also, for the attack, you will want to make all the chakra twist like that to greatly improve efficiency, and you probably want to make it a good bit smaller for general use to make it faster to form and easier to throw. I think it probably needs better cohesion, a better shell to contain it so you dont have it exploded in your face by someone´s kunai or even senbon, and if you can improve your control you might be able to make the shell variable to allow you to time how far away from you it bursts. Oh and smaller size will probably let you use it more times per day as well."

She certainly had Naruto´s undivided attention, so time to move on and have him try again until he managed the area dispel at least once and would know how to practise it by himself.

Going through how he should do it in more detail a couple of times, she then had him try again, this time with Hinata a long bit further away and very much not using Byakuugan, practising with Sakura in using the tiny flower illusion and then dispelling them. Being able to do either wasn´t nearly as hard as being good enough at them, and while the former had only taken them minutes, at least for Hinata the latter would likely take many hours of further practise.

Naruto´s first attempt fizzled again but still managed to dispel almost half the row.

"Not bad Naruto, you almost got that one right, and even as it was, it caused a useful effect, clearly you will be able to have a huge area of effect with this."

"Try again, holding it together until you release it, it´s your energy so you dont have to impose your will on it forcefully, you just have to keep your connection with it undamaged until the moment you let it burst free."

Naruto tried again and this time barely even managed to form energy at all.

"Guide the chakra, draw it out and focus on it, like you did when you added those twists before, but without actually adding any shape to it."

Naruto nodded slowly then grimaced in concentration, forming a now clearly shining sphere between his hands, much quicker than any previous try, then managed to release the energy almost cleanly. Despite how perfectly undisturbed the chakra was, Kurenai still felt it wash through her with amazing strength. The girls, even being halfway across the field startled as well. And ALL illusions on the field were gone in an instant.

'Oh dear goodness! That was strong enough that it would likely dispel things at least across the village! And it would probably even have some limited effect against all skills based on chakramolding...' That thought produced a crooked smile, considering how many things some people used such skills for on a daily basis.

"Well, that was certainly successful Naruto. I´ll have to ask you not to practise it with so much power anywhere near the village though, I can only guess at how much annoyance just that single burst probably caused. On the other hand, that dispel was magnitudes stronger than any other I´ve ever even heard about, so while you simply must learn to make a smaller version, we will have to make sure to give you the chance to practise the supersized one sometimes as well. Now, why don´t you try the flower illusion a few more times to try and get better control over the amount of power you use, while we wait for ANBU to arrive."

"Huh?"

"Naruto-kun, that chakrawave was almost surely felt through much of the village, they will certainly want to know what happened."

"Oh... ehhehehe, sorry." he said sheepishly.

* * *

-*o*-

A/N:

A pm comment I think I should adress here is a question about making Kurenai "that good"?

And the basic answer to that is that here, she´s spent the last decade or so training maybe twice as much as in canon, she´s not going to go out and take down S-rank opposition with ease, but she´s a far more serious threat in this version simply because she IS "that good".

More importantly however, if you think she´s TOO perfect, think about what´s happened so far, she´s already proven far from perfect, it´s just that she tries so hard for that perfection that most of her mistakes are lost in the overall success. Example, she wanted to capture the Kumo-attackers, but because she was totally intent on not risking Naruto or Hinata even the slightest, she overdid it and killed them instead of knocking them out. Even if their apparent power level not being for real also contributed, it was still a clear mistake.

And in the next chapter you will be told just what made her go that far.

Pokermind pointed out my little oopsy with i vs I, that should be fixed by now. Terribly silly mistake of me to make, but I so totally blame the internet for it, where writing fast tends to be much more important than correct details.

SeanHicks, fond or not about OCs, well the simple fact is that this story would become totally broken for internal consistency without them. If you add chances of improvement to a class, but end up with the exact same nine characters being the only ones successful, that breaks my suspension of disbelief at least.

There´s also the Narutoverse issue of seemingly having an average of around 10 new genins from the academy per year(except that the year before Naruto´s the only team we ever see is Gai´s), and yet the village later on suddenly coughs up at minimum 16000 shinobi?

I try to adress it as best as I can later on but I simply can´t stay exactly with canon and still feel plausible.

Also, I very much needed a few specific types of characters for what I have planned, and none of the canon ones would fit, so I simply meshed the results of Kurenai adding teaching and my need for characters into the same which will mean two extra genin teams, this also allowed me to keep them from becoming too powerful and taking over as main characters too much.

Also, if I were to try to give too much of a background for all characters I would simply slow things down too much to be enjoyable any more, so instead I do as I have found best in other fics and build up OCs a little here and a little there.

In Ranma 1/2, Ryu Kumon is the son of a dojo owner who Genma gave scrolls detailing his Yamasenken as an attempt to help him out of financial problems, Ryu´s father however when practising them accidentally destroys his own dojo, mortally wounding himself in the process. Ryu then goes hunting for Genma to get ahold of the Umisenken as well. Just look up the name in a Ranma wiki and you will find it.

Oh, and sorry if anyone got confused by how I slightly changed formatting from the previous chapter and onwards. Before that I used only italics for thought, now it should be 'italics', and instead of italics inside a quote to show emphasis or quote in a quote, I changed that to use -text-, as that´s how I originally type it and it seemed to be more obvious like that.

And finally, yes I´m letting Sasuke have a chance as well, exactly what will come out of this later is quite a different matter but for now he´s getting a much better deal than in canon.

If you think he´s being too thoughtful or too easily swayed in this chapter, remember that he has just spent several weeks getting what might be called "shock treatment", from taking up residence and some training with Gai and Lee, and that should be enough to force anyone to look at things from a new viewpoint.

20120923 Edit: Fixing some broken formatting that I´m almost certain was not here when I last looked...


	10. Teachings

A/N

Ok, first of two timelapse chapters, I wanted to make it a single one, but the events didn´t really fit well together like that, and it would probably end up as bigger than any previous chapter, and I think 10k is a nice rough upper limit to use. After those two, the story will end up around half a year before canon starts.

Turned out to be a surprisingly annoying chapter to write, still not content with it but it doesn´t seem to get much better than this so I might as well just get on with it.

Coru32, not a rasengan, those are based on circular motion and total focus of the force in one direction, this is more like taking dozens very poor and chaotic droplet sized not quite rasengans, and put them all together in a shell of chakra, which then explodes equally in all directions. So, nothing close to as powerful or focused, not to mention it´s rather wasteful on chakra, but still a useful thing to have.

And yes, if anyone missed it, the scene was inspired by the similar one in "Team 8", I just took it one step further, I pretty much got the idea of doing that the first time I read the scene.

* * *

.

* * *

Teachings

"However, since mindaffecting genjutsu has such a much higher threshold to use than the basic illusions I will teach you today, tomorrow the class will split between those that has a fair chance at learning it, while I have arranged for the others to train under Maito Gai. Well then, those who will join me tomorrow are Sasuke, Ino, Hinata, Shino, Shikamaru, Tenten, Nana, Icchan and Shion." _'Exactly half the group, even if not all of them makes it a common skill, that´s still quite good.'_ Kurenai thought, more than a little pleased at managing to get them this far already.

Sakura almost jumped at not hearing herself included in the genjutsu group "Uh-?"

Kurenai turned over to her and smiled "And Sakura will be my lovely assistant to make sure the time is better spent."

"Oh..." Sakura leaned back _'Cool, she already thinks I´m good enough to help teach...'_

A barely audible mumble drew Kurenai´s attention to Naruto who spoke up in a not quite whine "Pleeaasee can´t I go with your group instead sensei, Gai is insane!"

"Sorry Naruto, you can use the time with Gai much better."

Naruto sighed, slumped down in the chair for a long moment, then straightened and cheered up "Oh well, guess I´ll just have to make sure to come up with a suitable prank for him then, can´t let him keep avoiding them."

Most of those present did a mental facepalm at the fact that he said it out loud.

Especially since Sasuke lived with Gai and was sitting just a few meters away. And was currently putting his head in his hands with a slight groan.

Naruto turned towards the sound "What´s your problem Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up with a pained expression "Do you even realise that your attempts at pranking him is something he takes as a challenge?"

* * *

It was late evening, Kurenai was checking that things were in order, looking into Hinata´s room, she quickly found that things were apparently not in order, as the girl was not there. She quickly went and checked Naruto´s room, and found him to be absent as well.

She stretched her senses, first towards the seals surrounding the house that acted as wards and traps for any intruders, and found nothing amiss. When she used her other senses however, she quickly found them and relaxed with relief. She picked up a blanket and went down and out on the backporch of the house where her two apprentices lay next to each other, asleep, with Hinata having turned towards Naruto she was now curled up against the boy with her head on his shoulder. She carefully covered them with the blanket and then just stood back with a smile. _'Ooh, Hinata is going to be soo embarassed when she wakes up like that, she wouldn´t dare even coming close to doing that intentionally. Heh, looking at stars may be a nice way to end the day, but they really should learn to realise when they´re falling asleep.'_

* * *

Being a few minutes late, Kurenai was opening the door of the classroom when she noticed what was about to happen, reacting instantly she performed a handseal and was suddenly standing inside the classroom, looking at the halfopen door where Naruto just got a bucket of soft jelly over him "Really Naruto, you have to do better than that." looking around at her astonished audience she continued "Well then, perhaps I should change todays planning and instead get into the more advanced uses of the three academy basic techniques?"

"You mean that was a kawarimi?" an astonished Chouji asked.

"Yes, the more advanced versions allows you to substitute even with persons, although it´s far harder and requires much more chakra to do."

* * *

"Todays lesson will be this" Kurenai said as they arrived at a small monument filled with names.

"Cool, it´s a tribute to heroes of the village!" Naruto said enthusiastically.

"Naruto BAKA! It´s a memorial over people who DIED" came Sakura´s annoyed reply.

"Correct Sakura, and these-" Kurenai gently moved her fingers over two names "-is the reason and specific lesson we´re here for."

"W-who w-were they?" asked Hinata quietly.

"They were my teammates as a genin, they were both strong fighters, but just as myself at the time they were also very specialised on our best skills, with myself as the team leader and powerhouse, and that was what almost got our whole team killed, even our jonin-sensei..."

The looks from her three students were surprised and unbelieving "But if you were so strong..." Naruto´s question didn´t quite finish as he couldn´t really picture it.

"We were on a mission when unexpectedly we ran into a group of missing-nins, two powerful and two weaker and a bunch of various henchmen they had gethered around them, first we tried to avoid them, but for some reason they wanted to kill us really bad and forced battle, that was when me and our sensei made our big mistake, it was rather clear that as individuals, our group was far superior, so I went after the group of henchmen, locking them down inside genjutsu and taking them out one by one meanwhile, while our jonin took on the two powerful enemies, going all out from the start to take out one of them quickly, while my teammates went after the two lesser ninjas..."

She paused for a moment with a slightly sad expression "Well, the problem was that we didn´t know their abilities, and my teammates paid the price for that, this one-" she said pointing at one name "-I killed the one she was fighting just a few seconds after he killed my friend, but even then I only got there that soon by having taken a lot of risks, getting badly injured in the process."

"My teammates were both taijutsu specialists, really good ones even, they could tagteam a jonin together with at least some chance of success, but the two they fought, both used simple and weak ninjutsu which made taijutsu almost useless against them, and while they were getting more and more desperate in their fights, our jonin had found out that his opponents were exceptionally good at working together, unlike most missing-nins, and despite being much more powerful and pushing the limits he was only very slowly getting the upper hand-" her students were now looking rather unhappy about the story, and she still wasn´t done with the bad stuff yet.

"-and that is still not the end of it, because in the group I was fighting there were two persons who somehow had learned some degree of defense against genjutsu, and they kept dispelling parts of what I used on them again and again, and my skills at the time outside of genjutsu was insufficent for me to fight the whole group alone if they were not within my mindcontrol."

"So, again and again I had to reassert my genjutsu, defend against anyone who at the moment was not caught in it, while trying to knock them out as soon as I could, because my teammates were clearly loosing and while my sensei was winning, it was taking a lot of time, time my friends didn´t have."

"That sucks!" Naruto blurted out.

"Yes, it does." Kurenai said then continued "So, what are the lessons we can learn from this, and what lesson do you think I learned from it?"

"That´s pretty obvious for anyone who knows you sensei." Sakura said in a kind tone "Most people know of your dislike for being overly specialised, and how hard you have trained to be good at everything everything you possibly can."

"Correct, but there´s at least one more very important lesson there, Naruto or Hinata can you tell me what it is?" she moved the question to them as she was fairly certain that Sakura could figure it out easily, or even already understood it, she had trained her for that for quite a while now after all. Some of the less obvious lessons she would wait with until another time, and give the kids a chance to figure them out on their own first.

Hinata as always didn´t disappoint her sensei, quietly speaking up "Mmm, the o-other lesson is that no m-matter how good plans you have or if the e-enemy is weaker than you sh..." Hinata suddenly blushed massively and changed her expression to something slightly more proper while mentally berating Kiba for influencing her way of talking "surprises happens, a-and what you don´t know or w-what you think you know is what´s d-dangerous and gets people killed."

"Exactly, and now you know why I train as hard as I do, because I never again want to be unprepared when -shit happens-." she said with a smile aimed at Hinata who quickly turned a darker shade of red.

* * *

Sakura barely dodged and then scrambled hurriedly up and over the obstacle _'Shishou calls it combining practising mobility and danger sense all in one package, hard to disagree.'_ she dove to the ground just as another small rubber ball went through where she had stood a moment ago, then a moment later she heard a loud crack from further ahead in the obstacle course and both cursed over how quickly she fell so far behind Naruto and Hinata and being thankful that Kurenai was still just using those rubber balls against her, for the other two she also added the occasional undersized flashbomb.

She was also impressed with how much she had already began to improve. The first time she had been here, she had been utterly appalled when Naruto had managed to just complete a second lap before she completed her first and even Hinata had been on her second, close behind her.

Today she expected to complete the first lap well before Naruto had done more than a third of his second. Hopefully at least.

_'Yay me...'_ she thought with slightly tired irony a moment before she fell from the rope she had been crawling over, too slowly apparently, and taken a hit from a ball. While boosting her legs enough to allow her to simply jump straight back up and continue, she tried to work further on the little mental puzzle she had been given just after starting the course, and had to finish before her second lap was done.

Sitting down and doing it calmly, it would have been easy and taken at most a minute, doing it while trying to keep a high speed through an obstacle course, that was HARD.

"Come on Sakura, you need to be able to dodge even in a position like that!" Kurenai shouted from nearby. Disrupting Sakura´s thoughts again, causing her a moment of annoyance. Gone again barely a moment later simply because she had found that she loved the challenge of the training.

* * *

Sitting on the teacher´s desk, Kurenai was holding a short lecture of the more important kind "-while the true origin and reason for shinobi is espionage, with the additional power gained from chakra use, especially active use, combat has also become a very large part of what shinobi do, more so because of how shinobi fighting outside their own borders does not automatically mean war, while if the regular militaries of the nations marched into another, war would be inevitable."

"And what this means is that being shinobi will require being able to kill. This is also one way that Konoha differs a little, we kill when we need to, but if at all possible we rather try to capture or disable, if nothing else because it´s much harder to get information from a corpse." she added with a thin, almost evil smile that made at least part of the students feel a little bit shaky.

"Don´t ever try not to feel bad about killing, that will eventually make you little beyond machines that only exist to do their duty, and it never works out well. Make sure that when you have to kill you do it well and because you needed to do it. Don´t kill out of fear or uncertainty, but out of necessity, and even then, take caution." she looked over the class, catching the eyes of each student in turn to try and make them realise how serious an issue this was. It was never an easy task to prepare people, children really, for killing without going more or less disturbed or even insane from it. At least here they didn´t try to brainwash them into it.

"Now, with Suna, as part of our alliance with them, we have a simple treaty that essentially amounts to not fighting unless our current missions are at odds, it´s not a statement of avoidance but rather something that requires both sides to at least listen if the other speaks up. We will probably have something similar with Kumo soon. Iwa is random chance if they will even give you a chance to speak or not and Kiri was too often killing shinobi of other nations on sight, but the new Mizukage has changed matters into something slightly better than Iwa, there are however still many Kiri-nins that considers -kill on sight- to be the true way of shinobi." she stopped to take a deep breath and give enough of a pause both for the kids to catch up but also to voice questions.

None seemed to be forthcoming, but she was certain there would be some later once they had had time to think, there always was "The smaller nations are generally similar to Iwa or better, their size often means they prefer to have good relations with larger nations, but it also means they can get more desperate to avoid attention more easily, and because of that try to eliminate any witnesses, even when not at all needed."

After another pause "... Well then, any questions about yesterdays subject?"

Ino signalled and at Kurenai´s nod "Two things, well one is something I´ve wondered about much longer really and that´s why ever are the names the -hidden- villages?"

Kurenai chuckled slightly "A logical but still fairly easy question, the answer is simply that originally, the shinobi villages were hidden, but in the same way they became more military, the villages grew large and highly defended and the need to stay hidden became much less important than drawing both trade and missions directly rather than going through intermediaries. So basically, it´s tradition. Although some main shinobi villages still maintain a degree of stealth about their location, especially smaller ones."

"Oh..." Ino seemed slightly disappointed at the simple explanation "Ok, well second question, the numbers just dont add up! Even if all of this class become active duty shinobi, and the same happened every year, it´s still not enough for the numbers you showed us about normal numbers of active duty shinobi?"

"Ah yes, well the short answer is that the academy is simply the most standardised training for new shinobi, not by far the only one. The long answer is that many clans train their own from beginning to end, they then get attached to a mixed sources genin team or start out as a chunin or very rarely as a specialist jonin if they are exceptionally talented. Then, ANBU constantly trains at least some, usually producing at least one or a few new shinobi per year, commonly chunin level but sometimes genin as well. There are also many smaller villages around the country that have at least a few shinobi families, clans or families with such traditions at least, they usually provide enough for one or a few genin team and the occasional chunin every year. And then there´s sometimes recruits coming from the temples, acolytes that have found themselves poorly suited for the longterm templelife but skilled with chakra, often highly skilled. While here you spend a few hours per week practising with your chakra, they have often been doing that as much per day..."

After a short pause she went on "Then, those that fail the genin test but are not completely bad and elects to be part of an auxillary graduate team rather than going back to the academy or quitting completely, they get a part time chunin as instructor and sometimes improve enough to advance to genin, otherwise they do lowend D-missions while acting as a defensive reserve for the village, usually used to bolster the non-shinobi militia."

"They take on D-missions, like forever?" Ino looked shocked as she said it.

"Most don´t but some yes some do, they simply like the variation and rather free lifestyle you can manage, as they can decide when and how many they want to take on. Others use it as a temporary income while studying or preparing to set up a business and things like that."

* * *

"Normally, we avoid fights because fighting usually does not complete the mission, and completing the mission is, aside from staying alive, the only thing that counts, and sometimes it is the only thing that counts without exceptions. Hopefully none of you will see any such missions for many years yet."

After a moments pause she went on "But when a fight isn´t optional, what is it that we need to win?"

"Powerful techniques!", "Great taijutsu skill.", "Enough explosive tags to cover a lake?" Akiko´s calm statement caused laughter to disrupt answers for a moment, "Lots of chakra!", "Good teammates."

Kurenai let the suggestions keep coming for a while longer then spoke up again "Yes and no, what is needed is what some of us prefer to call a decisive skill, something that allows you to win. Sounds obvious doesn´t it? But lets take a look at you, what are your decisive skills? Ino, Shino, Chouji and Shikamaru all have your clan specialties as decisive skills, Shino is also good enough at taijutsu to have a chance to use it as one while Shikamaru can use his intelligence for it. Hinata has Jyuuken, Kiba has an advanced form of taijutsu and the ability to use that together with Akamaru. And one of the reasons Sasuke is considered top of the class is because he has several such skills, even if many of them are still at basic levels he can use fire, throwing weapons, wires, taijutsu as well as genjutsu, all well enough that they can be used to decide a fight."

She paused for a while, looking around to see if they were getting it "And then, you need a good enough defense to survive until you can apply your decisive skills. And this is where it gets really tricky, because even a fairly lowend genin often has enough of a decisive skill to kill or incapacitate just about anyone in just a moment. Personally, I use a combination of lightweight armour, extreme dodging, a fairly high level of body hardening through chakraboosting as well as simple physical training and also lowend genjutsu to confuse enemies perception of my location."

Sakura spoke up "This is why the Kawarimi and the bunshin are part of the few actual ninjutsu taught at the academy isn´t it?"

"Yes, it is also why you have a few hours of practise with chakra usage every week, because when used like that it strengthens your body, allowing you to take hits that might kill a civillian instantly and quite possibly just shrug it off. Even now, if you were to get into a fight with people unable to use chakra, you would probably be able to carve a path straight through their midst. This however is another important thing to never ever forget, it doesn´t matter how large the disparity is, even a child with a stone can kill you if you´re unlucky. Just because you are able to take so much more damage than a regular person, never mistake that for being impervious or even necessarily better at it than them. A good case in point might be Tenten´s classmate, Rock Lee, he´s completely unable to make any active use of his chakra and yet he can likely wipe the floor with anyone of you here."

_'She´s got to be kidding?' _Kiba thought with surprise, someone only a year older and with no access to his chakra? That should be an automatic win for him or any of the other highend taijutsu users, then he realised that Sasuke was training with Lee, and looking over at him, Kiba only saw what seemed to be a combination of a hint of a frown and a nod.

Sakura asked "You gave examples of our -decisive skills-, what about defense?"

"Well, you for one relies a lot on the hardening you get from chakra, far too much so right now, which is one reason why I´m having you improve your physique, combined with your chakra control every little improvement there gives you at least triple the effect, I also expect you will be able to add minor genjutsu later..."

"Not dodging, like you?"

"Maybe later, but for now you´re much too slow to use that effectively."

"Oh..." _'Damnit, too slow again!' _

"Anyway, Chouji and Naruto both use a combination of physique and large chakra reserves, Naruto is also extremely good at being unpredictable while Chouji adds his family technique, Shikamaru predicts his opponents and is pretty good at the kawarimi..."

* * *

Once her little class was all seated, with a small smile Kurenai said "Good day people, today you´re going to have lots of fun practising tying each other up and breaking out."

The first reply she got was a loud wolfwhistle from Kiba. _'Well, I guess I really should have expected that.'_

* * *

"Tonight, I´ll show you two a neat practise for throwing, because now Naruto, you´re good enough to be part of it, well done on improving."

"Right, here we have a bundle of wood constructs with what is basically a parachute attached on one side, Hinata will throw one in the air like this," she threw the 8 sided cylinderlike woodshape, slightly larger than a head, in a high arc, just before it reached its peak, the small textile chute opened up " later you can try more than one and harder trajectories, and while it glides down to the ground, it´s Naruto´s job to try and hit the wood part with throwing weapons as many times as possible while it is Hinata´s task to try and hit Naruto´s throws with her own, so that they don´t hit the wood construct."

* * *

"Somewhere along that stream, Iruka has hidden ten of these wooden markers, you´re going to team up two by two and go find them and bring them here, you´re not allowed to bring more than one with you back, just one per team. Twenty minutes after you start, I begin to search as well, and I´m allowed to bring as many markers with me back as I can find before you, I am however only allowed to carry at most one in each hand at any time and you are allowed to try and take them from me, medium danger level rules apply, but fighting between teams is not allowed this time."

* * *

"Kurenai-chan? Sakura said her parents were going to be away late tonight and I asked if she wanted to stay and she said yes and so we decided to play cards and do you want to play as well?" as all too common, Naruto managed to get out a lot of words seemingly without needing to breathe while talking.

"Civillian or shinobi rules?"

Naruto grinned "Civillian if you´re playing, but we can probably do shinobi rules a few times as well."

"Mmm, oh alright then, I guess I can stay nice for a while. Although I have to wonder how long it will take Hinata to realise she can try using her Byakuugan as long as it doesn´t show?"

"Ehm, she already knows that actually, she just thinks it wouldn´t be nice using it all the time so she tries to win other ways."

"Hah! Impressive, I´ve never noticed it."

* * *

While doing some training to speed up her taijutsu, Hinata started thinking, since she could almost do this part of the training in her sleep by now... It was still beneficial, but instead of dreadfully difficult, she did it on routine now, the downside of that was of course that she no longer improved massively over just a few months as she had when she started. Which of course was the reason it had been so difficult to practise at the time.

Remembering how her father seemed so impressed by the thought of Kurenai possibly creating her own taijutsu style, Hinata thought that maybe, just maybe she should try to make her own version of Jyuuken? She couldn´t seem to get really good with the original version anyway, Neji just being a year older and yet it felt like he was more like 10 years older when they sparred!

She knew she was getting better, especially with the addition of some more advanced moves adapted by Kurenai to suit her better, but it just didn´t seem enough.

Even Hanabi, despite being several years younger was already getting close to her in skill when she tried the unaltered style. And despite having practised them for less than half as long as Jyuuken, she was already better with the mashup of styles Kurenai was teaching her.

So, thinking about it for a while, the next time they were taking a break before shifting to another drill she asked Kurenai "ehm, a-no sensei? How h-hard is it to create a new style of taijutsu, or-or to change one?"

"Uhm... Well it´s not exactly easy. How much of a change or novelty do you want, what do you want from it, power, speed, complexity or maybe simplicity and so on, I expect you´re thinking about some way to have the Jyuuken suit you better? Take all that you have learned and mold it together?" Hinata nodded vigorously at that.

She continued "You needed the basics as much as anything else when I started to train you, so that was Ju Tai Jutsu, I think it´s very stupid of the Hyuuga not to teach it first or at least paralell to the Jyuuken, it´s simple basics but it certainly helped you improve overall, well then we added some Raiken to get your speed up and Junan Taiso Ryu to strengthen your body, a bit of Gai´s Goken to give you some more powerful and complex attacks and the Ten no Mori Tai Chi to improve your chakra and I´m thinking about the Konoha Ninpo Ryu for the future as it should add better integration with the others, but it might be better for you to adapt the Jyuuken more seriously instead, you already have made a very personalised version of it. You seem to thrive on learning as many styles as possible so I might teach it regardless, at least to some degree. So, what direction was it you were thinking?"

"Ah, I, well you remember when you showed us how to dispel genjutsu, the thing Naruto did accidentally, it sort of blinded me you recall, and it was so strong it almost numbed the body a bit as well,-" Kurenai nodded interestedly and wondered what was coming next "-I figured out a way to shield against it, I move a little bit of chakra out, not quite like with Kaiten but make it a thin layer over the skin instead and I found that I could vary the texture of it, I think I can vary its nature or at least that I will be able to eventually and I was wondering if maybe this could be used for fighting, maybe like add elemental attacks through the layer, making it hit everything that I merely touch slightly, but I don´t know how to work it out or anything..."

"First of all, can you keep that layer up while actually fighting? I doubt most people could."

"And changing texture, can you adjust it´s thickness and physical properties as well?"

"Ehm, y-yes I could keep it up while sparring both with Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan... and I think I can adjust the layer like that as well... How would that help sensei?"

"If you can anticipate attacks, and increase the thickness and strength of the layer where you get hit, it should be possible to have it work like an armour, it should help against the Jyuuken as well I would guess, that would certainly take care of defense to a rather good extent for you..."

After thinking for a moment she went on "but I rather doubt you could actually manage enough nature transformation to be able to add elements in the middle of attacks, anything truly useful will likely require a set of handseals to activate effectively, and doing that in the middle of a hand to hand fight would be most unadvisable until many many years in the future." disappointing Hinata.

"But, couldn´t you simply draw from the layer and just add it to the chakra strikes you already do with the Jyuuken?"

"That wouldn´t do much good, it might help my p-poor accuracy b-but the chakra itself doesn´t do that much damage, the diminishing returns from trying to do more damage than the regular Jyuuken by just adding more chakra is very bad, it´s already extremely optimised in that regard, it´s using it to hit the opponents chakra points that is really effective, as you then close down their ability to fight beyond the most basic, or even shut them down completely. Even the strikes targeting internal organs dont really benefit much from more chakra."

Kurenai blinked with surprise "Ehm, Hinata you´re almost impossibly accurate with taijutsu!"

"No sensei, compared to regular fighting styles I am, but the Jyuuken in common use, it´s mostly about hitting and closing down chakra points that are extremely tiny, and that´s like trying to use a needle to hit the point of a needle going in the other direction while it´s randomly moving around laterally, N-Neji is far more accurate than me, and his B-Byakuugan sight is also much stronger, which is of c-course part of the better accuracy."

"I see. So that´s why you need something to add more damage beyond that of the chakra and the relatively light impact of Jyuuken strikes." thinking in silence for a few minutes "Actually, remember how Naruto turned his mass dispel into the chakra bakuhatsu? He turned the chakra chaotic, twisting it, what if you were to draw additional chakra from your layer into your strikes and then also try to add that sort of twist to the chakra? Doing that while it´s still part of the layer should make it possible at least in theory. You think you can do that... mmm just dont try it out on a person, I´m not sure I want to know what it does if exploded inside a human if you get it even remotely as nasty as Naruto´s chakra bakuhatsu."

"Sensei! Eeew! I really don´t want to even try using that much force with a strike either. Unlike Naruto I don´t have what seems to be endless chakra-reserves, I would likely be h-half exhausted after less than a dozen strikes if I tried." she thought for a little while and then slowly nodded "But yes, that might work if I can get the timing and control just right. I think it´s worth trying at the very least. It would be far too slow if I tried to manipulate the chakra directly discharged in a strike, but if I do that part to the layer the moment before I use it in a strike... Yes that might just work..."

"So, shall we name it the Hinata no Jyuuken then?" Kurenai asked with mischief in her voice, getting a massive blush from Hinata.

* * *

"Congratulations on becoming jonin in such an impressive fashion Kurenai."

"Ah, thank you Hokage-sama, the tests were easier than I thought."

The Hokage smiled "I have told you before, you could probably have managed to get this promotion through the exam even before I gave you your promotion to specialist jonin, I have been quite tempted to simply give you the promotion already."

Kurenai blushed ever so slightly "Ehm, well I would rather be sure that I have earned the rank than take it early and risk failing at the new responsibilities."

"At least that is a decent reason, even if you take it too far. Now then, the reason I called you up, as part of your promotion I´m giving you a fixed longterm mission schedule, it will take up less than a third of your missiontime, but it has the advantage of keeping you close to the village." he handed over a document.

After a moment of reading Kurenai looked up at him "Mmm, patrol sweeps around the outside of the village, not the most amusing of mission but since it´s not fulltime I guess I wont fall apart from the boredom."

"Hehe... Indeed, that´s one reason I have avoided placing anyone fulltime on such missions, and I have found that giving jonin at least a part time fixed schedule allows them a greater degree of both planning and offduty time."

* * *

"Neh, Kurenai-sensei? I was thinking about what you said before about having a good enough defense, and... eh, well since I don´t really have much of a material defense, ehm... I kinda thought about the thing Hinata is practising, I can´t do the same but maybe I could do something more like a wall?"

"Hmm, perhaps... You know how I showed you how to do improve on the chakra shell for your bakuhatsu? Well, it´s a lot harder to do a wall like that, but it´s mostly about finding how to keep it structured intentionally rather than just relying on the shape itself for that. I´m sure you can adapt the shell like that, just remember that it would be a defense you have to activate every time you need it."

"Can´t you show me how to adapt it?"

"No, I can show you how -I- would adapt it, but you will probably need to be able to use it instantly and on instinct, and that means you need to figure out how to make it suit you, not me."

"Oh... Ok. Shouldn´t Hinata show Sakura that thing though? I mean she´s got so much better control, she should be able to do it easily?"

Kurenai looked up with a bit of surprise, she still wasn´t really used to the idea of having everyone learn all techniques they could, sharing them openly, rather than come up with their own, although in this case... "I don´t know Naruto, it´s not just a matter of control, although I guess if we could make it easier to maintain, it would at least be worth the effort of learning for both Sakura and myself, even if I very much doubt I could ever use it like Hinata is already learning how to do. I really wouldn´t want to end up like you did when you tried to copy it."

Naruto looked away with a sheepish expression "Eheheh... Whatever might you be talking about, I´m sure I can´t recall doing anything silly like that..."

The deadpan part of the reply made Kurenai chuckle.


	11. Limited success

AN:

Thought I would get this out last week as I already had over 3k words written and only a few "small" additional parts that needed writing, parts that suddenly grew a lot and now I sit here with closer to 11k words. The downside to that is that this chapter is also mostly very unpolished, but I think it´s better to publish sooner than trying improve things for too long.

Oh and just to remind anyone that might have forgotten it:

This is fanfiction.  
Anyone that believes the material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical help as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

* * *

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

Limited success

Naruto was taking the idea of using quickformed chakra barriers as a defense quite seriously, he really liked the basic layer concept that Hinata had started practising with, but the one time he had managed to come close to copying it, that had been possibly his most spectacular failure ever, he had had no chance at all to control the layer he created, so he tried the way he usually did, to compensate by pushing more chakra into it, making himself look like a minature sun and actually collapsing from chakra exhaustion, it was the only time so far that he had been forced to stay away from the academy, that he had managed to blind himself with it so badly that it took over a day before he could really see anything, that had been truly bad.

So, he concentrated, smacked his hand forward and then tried to push chakra out, similar to how he did with his chakra explosion, but faster and with a strictly regulated pattern, for a moment he thought he succeed, but a fraction of a second later the small round disc shimmering in the air at the edge of his hand fell apart and disappeared.

_'Definitely much harder than doing the shell for the chakra bakuhatsu...' _He frowned, and pouted while trying to go over the instructions Kurenai had given him, then thinking over his results so far... Kurenai had said she would go over chakra constructs in class eventually and that he might want to wait trying to figure out his barrier until after he had had more practise with a simpler technique first.

Naruto knew perfectly well that that was probably a good idea, but he still tried again and kept trying. After over thirty tries failing in various fashions his face scrunched up again as he was thinking. Then he tried it a bit differently, and as the small shield failed almost right away this time it created a small push back at him.

_'So I did feel that before... Wonder if I could use it for anything useful? Oh well, plenty of time to think of that later, back to make the shield work!'_

* * *

"Well then, today I am going to give a little crashcourse in the basics of seals, the academy only gives you the minimal theory on them for the simple reason that it´s one of the more difficult sides of ninjutsu. It is also difficult to use them during combat, as you will either require time to make them, or have them already done in advance, before you might know your opposition."

"However, it is also a very useful area to work with, seals can do things otherwise impossible, they can sometimes let you use powerful elemental techniques outside of your affinity, they can allow you to spend chakra you dont have right then and there, in short seals will often allow a shinobi to work beyond their usual limits. Yes Sasuke?" she turned over to where he was signalling having a question.

"How difficult would it be to do something elemental outside your affinity and would it be hard to use that in combination with something you do normally?"

"Like say adding a wind technique to your own fire?" she guessed and Sasuke nodded "Well, there´s no guarantee that you can do it, ninjutsu is as always an art not a science after all, but the really problematic part is the degree of difficulty in first learning to do seals, even if developing individual seals can take anything from minutes to years-" that got several of her students to go wideeyed "-you still have to learn how to get to the point where you can develop a new seal."

"And why´s that so hard then sensei?" Ino asked.

"You know how you learn hand seals? Seals are in many ways similar, but you need more things, you need chakralaced ink, often differently made for different seals, or if you´re capable of it you need to be able to do chakratracing, which you then use to write signs or letters that you chain together into a complete whole, while having to make every sign as close to perfect as possible and externalising the chakra shaping you do into it and often you also need to use regular hand seals to even further manipulate and add to the chakra in the written signs."

Various expressions were heard, mostly towards how hard or -troublesome- it seemed but no more questions for the moment so Kurenai went on "I guess most or all of you have at least seen a storage seal? Well unfortunately those are not quite so easy as we would wish, or noone would carry anything normally. The bigger and heavier something is, the harder it is to store it in a seal, even worse if the seal isn´t made specifically for the item, so what I´m going to teach you today is as simple a variant of a storage seal as there is, what is often called an emergency pack seal, you place it somewhere on your body where it´s easy to use and in it you have a few tools, a little water and a couple of basic ration packs and a minimal pack of medical supplies. Learning it will not be easy and I will use several more classes to help you with it, but I expect you to be able to perform it at least before graduation next year."

* * *

"NARUTO... YOU... YOU!.!.! GAAAHHH!"

Kurenai had just been going out to see why part of her hopefully future team was getting so noisy. And realised she should have noticed and acted sooner, as she came out just in time to see Sakura go completely raging angry at Naruto, picking up one of the rainwater barrels under the drainpipes from the house and throwing it at him as if it was less than a tenth of the weight and size. It was empty sure but it was still big and sturdy, probably closer to 30kg than 20, maybe even half Sakura´s own weight... Fortunately Naruto only took a very minimal glancing hit, though he clearly got shaken by it.

'_THAT most certainly isn´t the result of just the training for chakraboosting she´s done so far. So, unconsciously she´s maybe... five, perhaps even ten years ahead? If I can get her to do that intentionally, she could become extremely deadly very soon indeed if she keeps improving her physique as well..._'

"Sakura, it isn´t very nice trying to -kill- your friends. And Naruto, STOP baiting her!"

Instantly the two bitter combatants turned into two extremely embarassed, -small- children. Kurenai sighed, it didn´t happen often any longer but sometimes Naruto just went too far without thinking enough and if Sakura was having a less than great day already, she could explode quite fiercely thank you very much. And with Hinata not present today to keep things calm, well she -really- should have remembered that...

Still, at least both were improving, although Sakura´s training had apparently raised the inherent risks of their occasional fights. '_At least Naruto heals as quickly as he forgives, not to mention as quickly as he can get someone riled up!_' the thought made it hard for her to keep a straight face while she gave them a very nice scolding, something she had learned from the Sandaime was nearly always far more effective than anything more forceful.

* * *

Kurenai was going over her notes for her classes, she didn´t have any actual training as a teacher and had found that it quickly became very difficult to keep track of everything, after a couple of mistakes on scheduling she had taken up keeping lots of notes on the past, present and future of both classes and all students, at least she hadn´t messed up anything that mattered before realising how easy that was to do.

_'So... What do I have left of the basics? Sensory boosting and techniques is an absolute must have, I´ll have to make time for a few classes on that, especially considering how easy the basics are... Oh, chakra use against poison, drugs and alcohol, certainly can´t forget that even if it´s a bit ineffective... I want to help them use the last year to develop more serious secondary skills so not that much more time to do the basics... Mmm, using chakra boosting on weapons should probably be included... I will have to get outspoken permission from the Hokage to start with elements... I want them to have a practise skill for shape manipulation as well, the simplest possible but still at least with some use... Chakra needles perhaps? Hmm, they´re tiny and have minimal need for shaping, yes... that seems like a decent choice... And mustn´t forget to add a bit to the basics for traps the academy already teaches...' _

She wrote down a small list, going back and forth between the points and adding more and more notes to them, adding a few more points with questionmarks and then realised one area the academy utterly failed at _'They actually don´t even try teaching anything at all about stress relief or dealing with trauma... Oh dear, I bet this is going to be a really problematic subject to go over, especially considering two of the most common ways to deal with it, it´s not like I´m a postergirl for either subject... Maybe I should just throw Anko at them...' _ she thought with wry sarcasm. A moment later she realised that it might actually be a worthwhile idea, at least if she could have her do it without actually -causing- trauma or -too much- stress in the process.

* * *

"Hey firey little sister, what´cha doing?"

Hanabi frowned a bit at Naruto seeing through her fairly decent disguise and *hushed* at him so noone on the street would notice, he was annoying in many ways, but after meeting him at least half the times she had been with her sister since she moved out of their family home, she also very much appreciated him.

It didn´t take a genius to notice how much happier her sister was now, and Hanabi was a decent contender for any competition in being called a genius, it had only taken her seeing her sister with the boy twice to be certain that while her new sensei was a big part, Naruto was even more important, and that gave him an automatic recognition in her eyes as just about anything positive she could think of.

No, she certainly wasn´t unhappy about bumping into him like this in the middle of the village, only about the risk that he might give away her disguise, and coming up with a disguise that would fool both people in general but also more importantly the Byakuugan eyes of her guards, that had not been a simple task, and despite her effort she knew that if any of them truly looked, they would still see through it.

"I´m trying to get some things done without the wrong people knowing and because of that I had to sneak away from my clan guards and if you do anything to draw attention I´ll..." she couldn´t think of something suitable but Naruto understood enough from how her hands clenched together without herself even noticing at all.

"Well, that disguise isn´t very good you know?"

"The point was to have something that Byakuugan has trouble seeing through, anything else is a bonus!" she didn´t shout but she got agitated and had to spend a few seconds calming down.

"Why don´t you use a henge then, I know you´re training to be shinobi?"

"Baka nii-chan! It´s no good against our eyes!"

"Huh? Really? Hinata can´t see through mine I think?"

Hanabi´s surprise wasn´t obvious, but internally it was still a major thing _'That´s impossible isn´t it? I know sis eyes are weak but she can still see chakra points, even if she has a much harder time doing it, how could she not see through a henge?.? She´s not just humoring Naruto is she? No, no she wouldn´t do that EVER... That would leave the only option that Naruto´s henge is... different?'_

"Can you teach me yours?"

"Uh, sure... I was just heading to Ichiraku´s, wanna come and I´ll teach you afterwards?"

"... Ok..."

The greater part of an hour later, that had included a tasty lunch and then standing aside in an alley and trying to work out henge Naruto-style, Hanabi finally managed it, she was good, but Naruto´s transformation technique really was different and even the normal one certainly wasn´t one of her best skills, as it was rather disdained among the Hyuuga, their eyes at least in active mode seeing through it without much difficulty.

_'I was right!'_ she thought as she activated her eyes fully and looked at herself with an almost gleeful joy of success as the henge really did work well enough to fool Byakuugan eyes. '_It really is a different __variation of it and... ooh THAT is cool, I didn´t know you could do that with it... Actually, I´m pretty sure you cant do that with it? Definitely different!'_

"Wow! Great job Fire-chan! You´re really good, it took me many weeks to get even close to that good."

Hanabi blushed slightly, nothing like her sister, but she wasn´t immune to praise "Thanks Naruto-kun, but I couldn´t have done it without your help, huge difference to have someone show you exactly how to do it. And you were right, this henge will work, the regular one doesn´t."

"Huh, didn´t know that... So all those things you needed done," Naruto saw Hanabi squirm slightly at that and decided he probably didn´t want to know whatever it was she felt she needed to sneak away from her family to get "I´m no good at shopping you know and you really should have someone with you right?"

"... I know..."

"Well, I figured why don´t we go over to a classmate of mine and you can charm her into helping you, Ino is probably unparallelled at effective shopping and I´m almost sure she´s helping out in her family´s shop today. And I guarantee that you can get her to help you!"

"Oh, ok."

...

Before Ino had even looked up from the plant she tended, to greet whoever came into the shop a not quite loud "IIiinooo-chan!" almost made her jump.

Looking up she saw what she knew she would be seeing, one of her more annoying classmates, although she did appreciate a lot of his pranks and his positive outlook so at least he got a passing grade in her books even if barely, although her parents apparently were more wary but since they never said why she assumed it couldn´t be too serious. What she did not expect was him to arrive at the shop with a younger girl in tow.

"Naruto, what are you doing here, I really doubt you´re looking to buy flowers?" then gave a friendly nod in greeting to the girl.

"Well, uhm... eh..." after a bit of indecision he walked up beside her and whispered "She´s Hinata´s little sister and... well she´s trying to get out and do some shopping without having to deal with guards and all from her clan, and I, eh, I didn´t think it was good for her to go around alone and maybe you could please help her out I´m no good at shopping, it´s so totally boring and eh... I would be really grateful to you if you could do it, please?"

It took a few moments for Ino to untangle the long tirade and think about it, especially the interesting fact that the girl did not in fact look anything like a Hyuuga, looking a bit closer however she could just barely detect it as a henge, a very good one.

"Well, I guess... So what´s your name then?"

"I´m Hanabi, and it would be soo good of you if you could help me out." she replied with a nice smile and almost puppy-eyes.

Ino chuckled slightly at the scene _'Naruto definitely coached her how to do that.'_ "Ok ok, I´ll do it, so what´s your shopping target for the day?"

"Ehm..." Hanabi moved over, dragged Naruto aside then returned and stretched up and whispered in Ino´s ear.

"Mmm, that´s easy... I know a perfect place for that." Ino nodded as she listened to the list "You want what?" she turned with surprise "I mean sure, but aren´t you a bit young?"

"I´m probably going to be a shinobi in three or four years, isn´t that old enough?"

"Mmm, point taken... Did you even know where to look for that?"

Hanabi shook her had slightly.

"Well I guess it´s lucky Naruto brought you to me then, I could use an upgrade." Ino smirked at that then shooed Naruto towards the door "Good thinking Naruto, now get moving before I start some serious girltalk with little sister here."

Naruto got a terrified look "Ah, ok bye then!" and ran out.

Ino´s smirk got broader for a moment "Wait here while I go get mom to take over the shop, ok?"

On a nearby roof, one Hyuuga Keiko had just accidentally dropped her eyes active mode because of how she had started to giggle while lipreading Hanabi _'Ah well, guess I didn´t need to worry, about time she tries to get at least a bit of privacy... Good thinking by Naruto...' _ she wondered about the new henge but anything that helped the children she took care of was a big plus to her, even if it had been discomfiting to see the complete change. A long moment later she reactivated her Byakuugan and saw Ino return with her mother and then leaving with Hanabi, already chatting with the younger girl as if they had known each other forever.

A while later she also realised that Ino wasn´t just being nice, it seemed Hanabi´s little stunt had gained her a friend _'And that´s somethng she could really use...' _she thought with a smile.

Two hours later, while the two were heading towards the Hyuuga clan estate she was also certain that Ino had noticed that they had a shadow for at least the last hour, maybe a bit more _'And here I was trying to be careful...'_ she shook her head in resignation, apparently Ino was a bit too good at sensing, this wasn´t quite what she had wanted. But Keiko certainly appreciated how quickly and neatly Ino had adapted, taking a route that kept them within shouting distance of ANBU or groups of shinobi all the way back where she waited until Hanabi had entered the Hyuuga complex before she left.

A few quick moves later she jumped down a few meters in front of Ino, enough distance not to cause a needless scare but close enough to make it obvious why she appeared.

Ino stopped and clearly relaxed after a moment "So, I guess she didn´t avoid all her keepers then after all?"

"She did avoid them. As far as anyone but me is concerned she was never more than across the street from the estate main gate. But since you noticed me I wanted to thank you for taking such good care of her and also ease your mind that what you felt was no threat."

"I was already fairly sure of that, it was obvious there was no malice from you, if anything you felt like a parent of a treasured child, but I couldn´t be sure -why- you were following, it could have been because there was a threat from elsewhere..."

_'She could actually feel me that well? Ah yes, -Yamanaka- Ino wasn´t it... Still impressive from someone so young.'_

"I´ll add you to the list of safe people."

"Uh... Sure, but, I mean what do you expect from me?"

"I expect nothing, but if you want to be her friend, there will be nothing preventing it."

"Eh, ok..."

* * *

With some trepidation Kurenai saw her apprentices walk into the large kitchen, even though it was some distance to go from the academy, both were somewhat redfaced so apparently class had been about as bad as what she expected, at least they both seemed reasonably normal, embarassed but not really shocked "So how did the second class with Anko go then? I hope she wasn´t too scary?"

"N-not s-scary..." Hinata said a bit squeaky-like.

"She was having w-waay t-too m-much f-fun with it, especially the p-parts we already knew the b-basics of, s-she w-was far t-too graphical about some things!" Naruto stuttered out, probably the first time Kurenai had heard him have more trouble talking than Hinata.

* * *

"So, you DO know poisons!" Sakura said as she had caught up with the woman after the class she had held.

"Of course I do kiddo, I´m one of the better users of it in Konoha, and why should I teach any of it to you?" Anko retaliated with.

"Oh, lets see then, reason one because I can become a better ninja with it, reason two I can become a far better medic with it, reason three because you know that by now I can be trusted with something like that and reason four, well because I´m such a wonderful and lovely little kid and I could be so damned freaking annoying if I wanted to?" Sakura smiled wonderfully at the woman.

Anko froze for a tiny moment _'Aaw, she actually threatened me, and she did it in such a nice way even! Damn these kids can be so sweet... Very annoying sometimes, but definitely cute...' _The fact that Sakura knew perfectly well that the threat itself was completely useless only made it even more endearing to Anko.

A second later Anko started laughing wildly "Damn you´re getting so much better at being funny... I´ll think about it." she finally managed to get out.

* * *

"Damn..." Shikamaru seemed like it was a dreadful strain to say even that word.

Sakura looked over from her own game against Hinata, and a moment later she smiled "He did it again?"

"Yes. Naruto is by far the worst shogi player of the four of us and he still manages to win once in a while. It may not happen a lot, but it´s still... interesting, intrigueing even..."

"Wait, what? I won?" Naruto looked at the game with new eyes and saw what he had missed "YAY!"

"Yes Naruto you won." Shikamaru turned back to Sakura "He may not be great, but he´s certainly good at coming up with surprises..."

"And you´re by far the best, oh don´t look at me like that, I wouldn´t win half as often if you weren´t so lazy, and even as it is you win more than I do..."

"Hmph, you give me good opposition, it´s relaxing to play against Hinata and... amusing to play Naruto..."

"While there´s noone to demand that you help out with dishes or the garden or..." Sakura giggled at the face Shikamaru did, quickly joined by Hinata and Naruto.

A few hours later, Sakura and Shikamaru were walking slowly homewards.

Sakura looked over at him again and finally asked "You´re not sick are you?"

"Huh?"

"You lost against ALL of us, that has never happened before? You didn´t even go lazy on us..."

Shikamaru gave a hint of a smile or possibly a smirk "No, I am well. I was trying out a new tactic."

Sakura thought for a moment "But you played all your matches differently?"

Shikamaru smiled slightly towards her "Did I? Figure out what I did and I´ll tell you the details." a moment later he veered off towards his own home after a slight wave to a somewhat confused Sakura.

Just as she was about to go however, she froze up, turned around again "You intentionally played bad moves to see how we reacted?"

Shikamaru turned with a tiny hint of a smile "How troublesome, I thought it would take you at least until tomorrow to realise... I´ll tell you the details tomorrow at lunch ok?"

"Sure, thanks." meanwhile, inner Sakura was cackling madly at having nailed down his little scheme so much faster than he had expected. Even if she wished she had noticed it before he hinted at it himself.

At least she was the only one who seemed able to follow his halfspoken comments. _'Maybe I ought to try and get more of them together at once, hold a an actual little tournament?'_ Sakura hadn´t even realised that the game was fun before Hinata had had her try it on a rainy day, and despite how she had known Ino for several years, until Shikamaru had told her that Ino played as well, fairly good even, Sakura had never known. Mostly because Ino apparently thought it was embarassing to show off something that so totally clashed with her public appearance.

* * *

_'urk'_ Naruto thought miserably with his face in the dirt and the rest of his body a jumbled heap behind it. _'Note to self, trying to trick Sasuke´s Sharingan after both 1, I showed him how I did it and 2, he trained with Snake Lady and learned not to rely too much on it, equals a very bad idea.'_

As this was during one of Kurenai´s classes, said woman was standing nearby and having caught just enough of the event winced '_I really will have to give them some refreshers on the basics of falling and rolling techniques, that hurt far too much for such a minor knockdown.' _

* * *

Returning from a mission that had had her gone for the greater part of two weeks, after getting freshened up Kurenai quickly found her apprentices out in the large backyard area next to the small pond, with also Sakura, Ino and Kiba present.

"Hello girls, hi Naruto, Kiba and Akamaru, nice to see you again."

Various greetings including "Yo sensei!" and a happy "vaff!" from the latter two came almost instantly.

"Ok, teacher mode first, how are you doing with the exercise I gave you to practise on while I was away?" Kurenai was slightly surprised at the reactions that question caused, but it seemed to be mostly differing degrees of smiles so apparently nothing bad at least.

"So, what did I miss?" she added after a moment.

"Mmm, well if you missed anything it´s probably just that we should make sure that Hinata either really pays attention or just stays in bed next time she has a cold." Sakura replied with more than a little mischief both visible and audible.

Seeing Kurenai´s questioning look Hinata sighed and started to explain "Eh... I-it seems I didn´t listen as well as I thought when you explained and showed it to us, so the day after when I felt ok again and used the scroll you had put the written instructions on I-I... misinterpreted something quite b-badly... Sakura managed to do it quite well in a few days, but that wasn´t surprising, however when Naruto started succeeding as well a few days later while I still completely failed, I realised something must be very wrong, I mean even though Naruto does it more by brute force, it still requires a fair amount of control and he has never been able to come close to outdoing me in control before... mmm"...

Stuttering and blushing incoherently for a short while she finally got herself together again with a surprisingly big smile "a-and... well the thing I had misread... the scroll really described it very well on how you had to apply chakra in an active and smooth manner wherever you wanted your body to remain on top of the water surface, but I read one small part of it about pushing chakra into the water as pushing chakra into water... Do you realise the difference sensei?"

"Hmm, I´m not sure yet, so what did you do?"

Hinata smiled even more broadly while blushing more again, concentrated hard and... suddenly she was soaking wet, from the inside out.

Kurenai blinked, then just had to laugh. Not the only one to do so even though the others had already seen the accidental little trick.

"Oh my dear girl, that is a truly awesome mistake to make, and from your looks I assume someone figured out the good side of it?"

"Shikamaru was here with Kiba on the day I started asking Sakura about how she did it and we realised what had happened, and Shikamaru told me to be happy that I actually managed elemental transformation all by myself and without even thinking about it. And after that it only took me barely two days to get to a decent level of waterwalking, it was really quite easy when I wasn´t trying to do it wrong."

Kurenai chuckled "Well, first one of my students accidentally does shape manipulation unintentionally and now the other manages elemental manipulation the same way, I must say I am greatly impressed. Well done Hinata!"

While Hinata blushed happily, Kiba realised what she had just said.

"Wait, you´re saying Naruto can do shape manipulation?"

"Oh he´s just barely started, he can´t really do anything good yet, but he came up with a basic but useful manipulation in just a moment of inspiration while trying to do something else."

Turning, she went on "Hinata, shouldnt you go and change clothes?"

"Don´t need to sensei." at the wondering look Hinata concentrated again and after a little while the water on her and her clothes seemed to be squeezed outwards and poured down on the ground around her.

"That, was really impressive... You managed to push the water further away, good job. Especially since you managed to do it without also pushing your clothes away at the same time." she added with a grin, startling Hinata.

"Ehh, c-could t-that really h-have h-happened s-sensei?" she asked, clearly increasing her blush.

"Of course, the clothes were soaking wet so when pushing the water you could just as easily have pushed the clothes away as well if you were even the slightest careless." Hinata *eeek*´d, but at least she didn´t faint while the others more or less covered up their laughs.

"Anything else happened while I was away?"

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other for a long moment "Uh, you probably need to rebuild your beersupply, I think Anko raided it quite a lot all the nights she was here, both Kaori and Kakashi left you some notes on the desk in your room when they were here and... and ehm... Yuugao said... What was it she said Hinata I don´t remember?"

"S-she said to tell you that she was leaving on a short C-mission a-and that she had left the information you asked for with Yurika."

That surprised Kurenai, there was only one sort of information she would leave with Yurika, and after this long time she had not expected anything to be found.

She quickly got back to the here and now "Right then, Anko behaved ok?"

"Yeah sure she was even nice. Although she did push us to get faster on the obstacle course, even ran it with us. Not that we had much chance to actually compete with her." Naruto pouted a bit at saying that, he was getting quite good at moving around fast, but whenever Anko, Kaori or Kurenai tried seriously, even he was totally left in the dust. Kakashi was supposedly on the same level, but he had so far been to lazy to compete with them. Annoyingly, Kiba had managed to stay one large step better than him as well, despite all the practise Naruto had done.

The more Naruto thought about it, the more he felt he had to train harder, Yuugao didn´t leave him totally in the dust, but Akiko and Gin did, and Ryu could almost keep up with Yuugao. Not to forget that Sasuke was roughly even with him by now. Totally unacceptable!

Kurenai went on "Good, good to hear she does something useful with that energy. And I did tell her she was allowed to raid my stash so I expected that." she turned over to Kiba "Kiba, do you know if everyone in my class would be available in the evening a week and a day from today?"

Kiba thought for a surprisingly short time "Yeah, I think they should be, only one I´m not sure about is Chouji, he said something about meeting relatives I think it was, but that was probably after academy hours and not the evening..."

"Good, then spread the word that the class the day before is replaced by a long meeting here on that evening instead, I think starting at 7 should be good?"

"Sure sensei, I´ll make sure everyone is here on time!"

* * *

Kurenai sat down across from the slightly younger woman, noticeably in a secluded part of the restaurant, while not rare for when they met, it was clear Yurika had been more particular with her placement than usual. And being used to dealing with secrets, even what was normal for Yurika wasn´t too far from paranoid from many people.

"Hi there... So, how can you keep such an annoyed, almost angry face all the time Yu-chan?"

"Natural talent?" it was an old joke between them, but it still made Kurenai chuckle, it also told her that Yurika wanted her to improve on their privacy, so while she apparently made herself comfortable, she created a few illusions that would keep anyone from seeing or hearing without being noticed.

"I was surprised to say the least, to hear that you had news, did you get a lead on who pestered the store owners?"

"Just a tiny hint about that, though I do have a potential suspect at least, however that is not the primary information..." Yurika leaned back and hesitated slightly "Due to how little information I had to go on, I had to go through a huge amount of reports and schedules to correlate, the potential suspect I found by the way is Yamanaka Fuu."

Kurenai frowned "He was part of Danzo´s ANBU section wasn´t he? The one that was disbanded. I guess that would mesh well with how Danzo has tried to get Naruto put in his custody..."

"That was my conclusion as well, but remember that it´s a very loose set of indications, not a hint of actual evidence. Now then, the thing I stumbled on that really shook me up, was that I found references to reports coming in from Uchiha Itachi, the last one just two months ago-"

"Real, actual and serious reports?"

"Yes, I couldn´t get access to most but I did manage to find a paper that included a copied section of one, yes, real actual and serious, although based on the language I would say he is most unhappy about earlier events and the current situation, it is also very difficult to say wether he considers himself still loyal to Konoha or if his stated allegiance is a matter of convenience simply to avoid more hunter-nins."

"Oh dear... I guess this was why my debriefing was delayed?"

"The hokage was upset to say the least when I informed him, he wanted you to be informed of this before your meeting, to minimise the extra time that would be needed."

"Right, so who knows about this?"

"You, me, Kakashi, Yuugao, Ibiki and the Hokage. And there will be no additions to that list. Would it be possible for you to teach me how to do that genjutsu of yours? I´ve learned the hokages privacy technique and your original one but this new one seems much improved, and I really need the ability to aquire privacy in more varied locations..."

"Mmm, I think you can manage it even if genjutsu isn´t your best side, or even average side..." Yurika managed to increase her already constant frown at that.

After a quick refill of food and more importantly drinks, it was time for a long discussion about details.

* * *

Kurenai looked around "Good, all settled down, right then anyone know what this is?" she held up a paper.

"It looks like chakratesting paper, but not quite like it?"

Kurenai wasn´t surprised at getting the answer from one of the younger students, Icchan, she had already mentally dubbed him -mr gadget- because of how he seemed to have a major interest into anything that was even slightly complex. His armmounts, a wirelauncher and a needle shooter were even of his own making.

"Correct, however it looks different because it´s a new variation of it, the old one would usually only show you your strongest elemental affinity, something I myself eventually found very annoying because I have two almost equally strong affinities, yet I only knew about one of them for years. This sort of chakrapaper however will always show if you have more than one, and it will also show on a rough scale from one to five how strong each affinity is."

"Why haven´t that been done before then?"

"Because too few people thought it was needed, and because it costs over ten times more to produce."

"Ah..." the few that knew what regular chakrapaper cost winced.

"Now, normally you would not start doing this until you were veteran genin, but because you have done very well and showed yourself to be responsible enough, yes even Naruto and Nana-" that drew quickly suppressed laughs, a scowl from Naruto and an angelic -who? me?- look from Nana "tonight we will see what elemental affinity you have and then you´re going to be busy copying a bunch of basic elemental technique scrolls. Over there, is a bunch of E-rank techniques that ALL of you will copy and learn, and over there, are higher ranked techniques that you will pick a few from based on what you need, the strength of your affinities and how likely you are to learn them. If, after you have learned all the lowend ones, and you can show me that you have learned the higher ranked techniques well enough, I´ll let you copy another one."

Naruto didn´t quite whine slightly "Aaw, what´s with all those useless ones?"

"There are no useless ones here." Kurenai replied with a tone that quickly got Naruto to improve.

"Ehrm, I mean why all those E and D-rank ones and why do we have to learn those first?"

Kurenai´s expression changed into a very nice smile "One, because I´ve chosen them exactly because they are very easy to learn, which will make it easier for you to then learn the more advanced ones, and two, because mastering a simple one for an element you have no affinity with, is one of the best ways to create a new affinity. Understand though that with -mastering-, I truly mean mastering it to an extreme degree. And three, because compared to the time you spend to learn them, they are extremely useful."

"Uhm sensei? I thought you had to first learn how to directly affect your element?" Shikamaru asked.

"That has been the common way of teaching yes, it is however very much mistaken. That is how I learned to use my first element and it took me years to become proficient. Realise my surprise when I found out about my secondary affinity and became decently proficient with it in less than a fifth of the time, by learning a few very lowend techniques that I practised a lot with, getting the same sort of feel for the element. And among those E-rank techniques I have included one for each element that gives exactly the training you need to get that feel. The only real potential drawback is that if you´re intent on creating your own techniques, you can start doing that much earlier with traditional training, however you will probably still finish them faster with my style of training, simply because you reach basic proficiency much faster. It is also harder to use an element instinctively with my training, but again only until you reach proficency. And few use them like that anyway."

"Heh, so slightly less versatility while practising, but cutting down the time needed for that practise drastically, good tradeoff."

...

Kurenai first passed out regular chakrapapers, using those to explain how to do the test, then while passing out the better ones, Mizore waved "Eh sensei, I´ve done this before and I always get the same result?"

"Have you tried with this type of paper?" she got a slight shake in reply "Well then try it again and see if you can find out anything more with these."

"Ok" she easily channeled chakra into the paper while Kurenai looked, and was not surprised when she saw the neutral part of the paper, meant to indicate nonstandard affinities, iced over very completely, indicating an exceptionally strong affinity while no other part of the paper gave even the slightest hint of anything.

Mizore sighed "See, impossible as always."

"Don´t worry about it, just because the normal way of having an ice affinity is through combining water and air doesn´t mean yours cant work as it obviously does, still though, I know you have trouble learning from any of the usual elements but I suggest you try the E-rank ones anyway. Might help you get better with at least one common element."

After getting a nod in reply she went on to Hinata "Well we already knew you had a water affinity, but both strong water and earth, a nice combination."

She looked over to Naruto "Wind is the least common and you even have a strong affinity for it... Should work well with your style overall." Naruto quickly sported a big grin in reply.

Looking the other direction from where she stood behind Hinata she smiled a bit "Hmm, I almost expected something like that Sakura, it seems common with those who have good skill with chakra overall. It´s a bit of a doubleedged sword having three affinities like that, it is very nice and potentially gives you lots of choice and flexibility but with weak fire as your most potent element and very weak lightning and water you will have to work harder to learn techniques and they will usually not be quite as powerful as they could be at best, although fortunately I doubt you will have much trouble learning."

She stepped over to a slightly confused looking Sasuke "What´s the problem?"

"All... I mean, all Uchiha are supposed to be strong with fire..."

"Ah, well that´s just what´s common, that doesn´t mean all Uchiha actually has a strong affinity with fire, just that you tend to practise it so much that it is rare for someone to be poor at it, and you still have an average strength fire affinity, and adding that very strong lightning to that, certainly nothing wrong with that."

She moved around looking and commenting on more results, stopping by Tatsuki with interest '_My my, what have we here... Strong water and earth and a strong, unknown indication in the neutral area, could she be the first Senjuu to actually inherit the Shodaime´s wood affinity?_'

"Woah cool, a dual affinity." Kiba spoke up as he saw the minimal fire marking and the average mark for water, then frowned slightly as he looked around "Hey sensei, I thought it was rare with more than one affinity, seems we have many here with it?"

"As I told you before, most of that is merely because most simply tested for their strongest and then tried to build on that by developing other affinites afterwards, probably often not the ones they already actually had. You are right in one way though, it´s not common to have several strong affinities, so Hinata, Sasuke and Tatsuki are a bit unusual to have all in one place like this. And having three strong affinities is extremely rare, I know of only one such person and she is the current Mizukage."

"So if I could develop all three of my affinities I would have a head start to become hokage?" Sakura asked straightfaced.

"Wha- HEY!" Naruto´s spluttering response was just as fun as Sakura had expected.

Kurenai smiled "You have so many other strong skills Sakura, that I doubt you would need to add strong elemental abilities as well, but of course it never hurts."

As they started copying the scrolls, Kurenai´s thought was that it was really such a waste of time to do this by hand. They had access to printed books so at least the E, maybe also the D-rank techniques, why not just make a decent collection and print up, it certainly wasn´t anything that really needed to be kept secret or restricted.

* * *

The extended village council had been called together by a trio of lesser non-shinobi clans, it had almost no official power and existed mostly as a place to settle disputes and matters that should not need to go as far as the hokage. The actual council, the village elders Homura and Koharu as well as the hokage were also present and were currently wondering why they were being bothered. One of the representatives that had called the meeting had been ranting about security for non-shinobi in the village for several minutes already and showed no inclination to stop anytime soon. The problem was that noone could figure out what he was so angry, or possibly afraid of, it wasn´t even clear which it was.

After not much longer it was finally Koharu that raised her voice well above the ongoing droning "Get to the point now or I will make sure you find out exactly how unsafe your life can get, your potentially very short future life."

While the man that had been talking sat stunned with his mouth hanging slightly open, the second of the trio, a middleaged woman quickly tried to rescue their cause by picking up as if it was what she was going to do from the start.

"It has come to our attention that unreliable youngsters are being given access to dangerous techniques! This can not be allowed to go on. How can we be safe if children that has not even proven themselves as shinobi genin are running around using elemental techniques indiscriminately!"

Those who realised what she was talking about were flabbergasted at the complete lack of reason, the surprise kept anyone from saying anything for long enough that the woman thought she was in for a winning streak.

So she continued, now with an almost grandiose style of speaking "And even worse, we have found that the same tokubetsu jonin responsible for spreading this danger is also about to spread secrets of Konoha´s shinobi to whoever will pay, I therefore request that this menace to Konoha, Yuuhi Kurenai, is tried for treason!"

For a moment nothing at all happened, this was no longer unreasonable or silly, this was blatant stupidity and everyone was just stunned that the trio of civillians, with zero shinobi connections to them dared to do something like this, if nothing else it was forcing a busy hokage to waste time.

Then, Hyuuga Hiashi made a extremely blatant show out of looking up and rolling his eyes, with his almost all-white eyes making it look silly, and considering his normally stonefaced demeanour, this finally broke everyone else out of their stunned surprise. He then quietly said "I thought the whole thing about having shinobi was that they were supposed to know dangerous things..." drawing a lot of more or less supressed reactions.

The hokage was not happy, well he was happy about the show Hiashi had put on as it was a rare sight indeed, but it was obvious the trio of merchant clans had been played by someone, except it made no sense, noone would gain anything from this ridiculous theatrics.

He was just about to speak up when Homura gave him a slight gesture that they would handle it and then spoke calmly "I believe you are misinformed... And stupid." that almost caused an explosion in the man who had done the initial ranting, the woman frowned and seemed mostly confused while the second, older man just raised an eyebrow.

"The council was already informed of a suggestion about teaching elemental techniques early, and after some deliberation, we approved of it for the time being."

Koharu took over "And while I may have objections to the idea, that is not due to any risks for the civillian population of Konoha. I have no clue where the absurd idea of Yuuhi-san selling secrets could come from though?"

She looked around and the Hokage nodded to her and spoke up "She made the suggestion that we might want to make a collection of E-rank techniques and spend the money needed to get a properly printed book from it, possibly a second book with D-rank ones as well."

The usually so stern elders actually had difficulty stifling giggles, after a few seconds Koharu managed to speak up "*erhm* Ah yes, those truly great and worldending secrets indeed."

The rest of the meeting mostly consisted of unending humiliation for the trio that caused it while the council overall spent the time mostly doing business as usual, why waste the opportunity? The hokage kept up with the few things he needed to but was mostly trying to figure out who the heck would put three whole clans up to such an idiotic stunt, and more importantly why?

After the meeting he made sure to get the chance to speak a few words away from the crowd with Hiashi, even with how things had happened, getting the often contrary Hyuuga leader to put himself so completely on his side had been a wonderful experience, it was sad how they had grown to be mostly political opponents over the years "I thank you for your support."

"I belive the subject of tonights meeting said it well, regardless anything else, we are allies in wishing the best for Konoha, and even new shinobi most certainly are meant to know dangerous things. It worries me however that someone went through all the trouble to set up this charade."

"Indeed, you and me both." they left together chatting quietly, more amicably than in many years. A potential common enemy was always a very good reason to get reasonable even with old opponents.

* * *

"Ok boys and girls, we have about a year until graduation so it´s time to start thinking about what skills you have already and what skills you may need or want at a higher level, the papers I´ve given you lists suggestions on skills to learn or improve, either to reduce a weakness or to provide you with one or more additional -decisive skills- as we talked about earlier. I have ranked them based on the preference I would consider them in, but now it´s your thing to figure out what you would prefer and possibly enjoy to learn, you have two weeks, after that I will start setting up more small-group training sessions based on your choices, if you´re uncertain, talk with me or someone else you think might know what could be suitable for you."

At the end of the class she had Tenten stay "Well, since you´re graduating soon, I´ve made sure to speak with your coming jonin-sensei so that if possible he will schedule your team such that you will be free to attend these classes at least more often than not."

"You already know what team I´ll be on?"

"You managed to impress Maito Gai years ago when he was here regarding Rock Lee-" Tenten had cringed a bit at the jonin name "Oh don´t worry Gai is much better than he sometimes seems. That you´re probably going to be rookie of the year at the academy certainly wont hurt."

Tenten frowned a bit and looked away "It´s not like the competition is serious. Lee is the only really good one and since he can´t mold chakra at all, his average grades falls behind badly." she cheered up a bit with a hint of irony noticeable "Ah well, I guess the team will be me and Lee then, do you know who else?"

"Officially no. Unofficially it will almost certainly be Hyuuga Neji, Hinata´s cousin. He´s stuck up and arrogant, but he´s also VERY good."

-*Evening*-

Naruto grumbled slightly while looking at the paper, Kurenai looked up with a questioning look "Why so few options, Sakura´s had so many that you had to use both sides of the paper and even Hinata has at least twice as many as me..."

"Several reasons Naruto, first of all while you´re very good at learning practical things, you´re not nearly as good with theory, that alone would mean that many skills would take excessive amounts of time to learn well enough. Secondly, you have huge amounts of chakra but your control is bad, so I focused on things that would benefit from the former but not be too restricted by the latter. Thirdly, your wind affinity is a very versatile and flexible one, and should easily make up for learning fewer skills in total. Also, don´t forget that this is what I suggest you focus on for the next year, not forever after. And it is merely suggestions, if you have an idea, speak up and I´ll help you with it if I can, just as my suggestion on how many of them you focus on is open for discussion, but only if you show that you can actually handle more."

Later, when it was just Naruto and Hinata "So, Hinata-chan, what are you planning to pick?"

"First I´ll be improving my variant of the Jyuuken more, w-well more like making it work at all, Kurenai-san also thinks I can combine my chakralayer with it to develop a sort of Kaiten that can do ranged attacks."

"Cool!"

Hinata smiled a bit at the exclamation, Naruto had been extremely impressed by the move despite how she had just barely began practising it, very poorly so far "And because of how accurate I am, learning pressure points and how to use senbon against them seems like a good idea... Oh and I have a whole bundle of elemental techniques to learn since I have two elements to learn from and Sakura has helped me start with the first real genjutsu techniques."

-*Next day*-

Seeing Shino walk by, on a whim Ino spoke up "Hey Shino, so what will you choose? From Kurenai-sensei´s suggestions I mean."

A bit surprised at the sudden attention but not showing more than a tiny freezing of movement "All her suggestions are logical and interesting, selecting a few is quite difficult."

"Well, those... bugs, of yours are rather slow right?" Sakura was still quite a bit uneasy about the concept of walking around with bugs inside you but she was trying to get over it, Shino was fairly nice after all, if you managed to have him speak up at least "So, you need something faster and ranged then, so getting skilled with throwing weapons should be a good start? Mmm, and even if you´re not talented with genjutsu you can still use it, improving that could give you plenty of versatility and add to your ability in a support role... And maybe some sort of weapon to give you a better bite-" she was almost certain that he smiled at that "-up close since you´re not very mobile..."

"Sakura-san, did you happen to read my paper?"

"Eh, no?"

"Those are three of the top four suggestions and the motivations stated are very similar."

Sakura blushed slightly "Oh... Guess I´m trying to take after shishou..."

Shino gave a hint of a tiny smile "And yourself?"

"Definitely wires at least, seals was also high on the list and improving my chakraboosting is another certainty... I also had a few ideas on how to use some medic techniques in a fight and related to that, shishou said I could probably learn how to do chakra-enhancing of blades easily..." there was also another idea she had come up with when Kurenai had showed her how to further improve how she used her highend control to make herself sturdier. Added to that, was what she had seen of how Hinata´s clothes used chakralaced threads. A few tries with cloth had shown her that it should work, but she still wasn´t sure to what degree.

* * *

"And finally, since everyone else has already begun... Kiba vs Saeko."

Kiba looked at the one year younger and much smaller girl "Eeh? Sensei! I´ll kill her even if I try to avoid it!"

"Have you seen her fight seriously before? No? I have, oh you´re certainly a much better close up fighter than she is, not to mention far beyond her in size, strength, maybe even speed... But this time I´m giving her permission to use her ninjutsu."

"Me to?"

"Nope, you need the lesson you´re going to get. You´re getting far too complacent with how good you are with taijutsu and your physical size and strength."

Kiba suddenly looked a lot less happy, when this teacher said you needed a lesson, it was usually going to be bad one way or another.

They lined up facing each other, a few paces apart, Kurenai waved them off to start. Kiba knew the girl wasn´t completely useless but also that she wasn´t good, not good at all, so he was skittish and worried about what allowing her to use -her ninjutsu- would mean. Then she moved, it looked like she simply threw a simple punch, halfway through it sort of slowed, as if the air had become halfsolid, then with a strange noise she was up in his face and the punch hit him squarely center of mass with a force he knew the girl couldn´t project even with chakraboosting.

She leaped backwards to her starting position while Kiba got back up from his little flight and trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Then went on the offensive, wildly. He got a glancing hit on Saeko and then with a similar noise she was on his side and hit him again, though this time very obviously with just her normal strength, it didn´t really hurt that badly but it was still a clean and very neat hit that made his arm go a bit numb for a moment.

The pattern repeated several times until suddenly she jumped back farther away from him than before and rapidly went through some handseals that caused a vaguely visible transparent dome to appear around them, centered on her. Kiba didn´t know what she had done, didn´t even feel anything different, but then he tried to attack again, and the girl flashed aside faster than he could see her move, what he thought couldn´t have been even a tenth of a second later he got hit from the side, then again from behind, then within the span of just a few seconds to him, he received a verital barrage of hits. Until suddenly the dome just collapsed and disappeared, and the girl collapsed with it.

Before anyone had moved the girl turned over "Sorry sensei, looks... like I overdid it... Need to... work on chakra reserves more... like nii-san." at which point she sat up a bit shakily "Guess you won anyway Kiba, eh?"

"Bloody heck! I didn´t have a chance if you had lasted! What was that?" Kiba wasn´t really hurt, only a bit sore, but his pride definitely wasn´t in the best of shape.

Seeing that Saeko wasn´t in danger, just needing to recover Kurenai answered the question for her "The first technique she used was a space manipulation jutsu, like an extremely advanced version of the kawarimi except it doesn´t need anything to switch with, it also has the advantage that with some preparation you can build up a lot of extra momentum with it, and the second was one that skewed time for both of you, she speeded up time for herself and slowed you down. From the outside it looked like she was moving fast but not extremely so, while you moved like you were stuck in glue."

"Remind me never to fight her if she has a weapon..." Kiba grinned at the girl on the ground and got a grin in return while Kurenai smiled slightly '_Well at least Kiba takes his lessons to heart with ease more often than not._'

* * *

No response came so Kiba took things to the extreme "You´re wearing a fish as a hat and there are ants crawling all over you Sasuke!"

"..." after a moment a somewhat confused Sasuke looked up from his lunch and with an unbelieving tone "What?"

"Mizuki-sensei asked me to give you these papers."

"Oh... Thanks..."

"Hey man, what´s the problem?"

Sasuke was silent for a while, but Kiba could be very patient when he wanted "Well... Gai has a new genin-team with Lee, Tenten and some Hyuuga, and-"

"And now they´re out of town and you miss them?"

Sasuke blinked in surprise "Uh, I guess... Never thought it would be possible even just with how loud those two can be."

"Well duh! Would be stranger if you didn´t! Hey, after class I´m gonna go drag lazy-butt Shikamaru with me to help my sister, you´re coming too."

"Wait, what?"

"You so really need something to do, totally decided!"

Sasuke decided to simply go along, once Kiba had decided something it was not easy to change his mind without an obvious reason. He didn´t jump desperately at the idea that would get him some company for the day, certainly not. He most definitely hadn´t gotten used to having company, oh no.

* * *

Hinata spun around and tried to shape the chakra she released at the same time, and again she just barely managed something that could be compared to the Kaiten move. '_Damnit..._' She frowned at being unable to control the chakra release correctly once more. It would still probably work against less skilled enemies but compared to her father it was like comparing a tiny raft with a large steamship, both could be used to get across waters, but the former would have major problems outside of very limited situations.

That she was getting tired after having tried doing it for several hours already was not helping.

After a minimal rest, she took a deep breath, relaxed and then tried again. She spun quickly in a tighly controlled circular motion while moving chakra out around her in a very precise pattern, her shape seemed to blur into an opaque ball.

A long moment later she stood there still and normal again, panting a little, but now with a pleased grin on her face '_Yes! Much better! Now it´s just a matter of doing it at least that well every time... Was it five years father said it took him to achieve that?' _ she thought with more than a little sarcasm despite the happiness, but having managed to get it at least roughly correct, finally she knew that she -could- do it well enough.

After a few minutes rest, she focused hard again, first establishing the chakralayer she was working on, then hardening it to the minimal level needed to be useful, took a minute to make sure she had not made it too stiff, the few times that had happened so far had been extremely embarassing, it was like a soldier putting on his armour so poorly that it made him trip over the instant he tried to move. It was one of the reasons why she insisted on practising this alone, far away.

And one of the other reasons... She focused on the targets on the training field, then on the layer, changing it, then she spun again, as she had expected, she managed the normal part of the Kaiten very poorly, but at least now it was more because of focusing on something else.

After spinning for a few seconds she focused her view on the targets again and tried to get a clean release of the tiny chakra constructs she had changed several small parts of the layer into. One hit a target with loud *thunk*** **before dispelling. Except it was the opposite target that it was supposed to hit. The first projectile had dispelled before it was barely away from her, the third and fourth had flown off in completely wrong directions, while the fifth had somehow flown almost straight up, before dispelling violently from being created with a bad lack of stability.

Hinata winced at the result. At least here she would not risk killing people she cared about, the first time she had tried, one of the projectiles had just barely nicked Naruto´s leg. She thought for a long moment while catching her breath again, then spun once more, her concentration extreme, waiting a moment longer before releasing the first projectile this time. '_YES!' _One of five had hit fairly close to where she tried to aim it this time. And at least none of the others failed completely or went in directions that should be impossible.

She sat down for a few minutes trying to figure out why the almost hit had worked, then she got back up and tried to do a classic Kaiten again, and again it worked well enough to barely annoy a low level opposition.

She frowned, thinking a few seconds then repeated. And again, then twice more. Then she tried the projectile version five times, getting another almost hit out of the twentyfive shots, then Kaiten again, there were still a few hours left before sunset when she needed to be back, _**'**__Back __**home'**_ she thought, quite pleased that that was actually how she really did feel.

* * *

AN:

Well, last chapter before I start touching on things happening in canon. And hopefully noone will fall asleep before there is some real action, the story so far has become much larger and especially much slower moving than I originally planned for... But, there will happen quite a lot in the not too distant future and there will even be quite a bit of action as part of that, promise!

Yurika is actually a canon character, a very minimally used such which I found suited several purposes for me, I wasn´t actually planning to use her for a long while yet, but she ended up a minor character here in the early parts as well.

Tatsuki Senjuu is roughly inspired by Tatsuki from Bleach, except blond. Fairly fast and mobile, well above average physique, halfdecent as a sensor, taijutsu is her primary skill, decent at throwing stuff.

Saeko Meioh, is mostly a OC, but I expect many can guess where the name come from and why I use it. Short and thin with slightly past shoulderlength black hair. Wont be caught in a real fight without a weapon.

And if anyone wonders, yeah I have a fairly big textfile with nothing but characters, including using an enlarged version of the official and canon databooks on character skills, I simply increased it to 20 numbers instead of the original 8 to better keep track of where characters start and where they go from there.

How many can figure out what the reason was of the council politicking? Hint, it was very intentional and had a whole host of goals to achieve, most of which were achieved. Also I´ll add that the way some present the village council, as something with far more power than either the hokage or the elders that make up the canon council, me no likey. A village built on the strength of its military strength, will not let non-shinobi rule over nor overrule the shinobi.


	12. Extracurricular activities

AN:

Annoying thing about this chapter (for me that is) is that most of it was done half a year ago, but the theoretically small distance between "almost done" and "done" took a lot of editing and rewriting some parts. Since last chapter I also wrote and posted a little (probably) oneshot crossover between Star Trek and Nanoha for fun and practise, started on a crossover of Spellsong Cycle and Naruto, and overall didn´t get around to actually sit down and just write nearly as much as I had wanted. Still, the chapter is DONE!

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

-*o*-

* * *

Extracurricular activities

Sakura had resigned herself on the fate of most likely getting teamed up with Naruto months ago, by now she had even realised that he did in fact have some good sides and if nothing else he kept trying, one way or another until he got a result, and the training Kurenai had suckered her into taking on, oh it was a very sugary offer certainly and she had figured that there was more behind it even before accepting but still... Well the training had given her a new appreciation of the quiet, oh so often blushing Hinata, and she was effectively a close friend by now even if she didn´t really understand how that had happened...

But Naruto today, what was wrong with him!? Just being near him made her feel nervous!

After he almost spilled his cup ramen for the third time this lunch she forcefully asked "Naruto what is WRONG with you today?! I swear if you dump that ramen on me I´ll pound you underground!" And -why- did he have cup ramen by the way? Both Kurenai and/or Hinata always made sure he had decent food with him...

That of course just got him to almost spill it on her again, "Eh, sorry sorry Sakura-chan I just realised something yesterday that kept me awake and worrying half the night"

The -never give up- boy awake and worrying, huh? Sakura was rather surprised at that and Hinata was the one to go on first "Ab-bout what Naruto-k-kun?"

"Well, the exams are coming up later this year, and I realised that one of the most common practical tests used was the bunshin, and it´s almost the only thing I´m truly bad at and no matter how I´ve tried it is THE one thing I haven´t really been able to improve much, even if those exercises for chakra control helped a little and I just don´t know what to do about it, I mean I can´t even know if it will be in the exam and what if I superstudy for doing bunshin and then fail because I forgot about something else and..." his voice trailed off into a worried frown, then he looked up ahead and spoke louder "Hey Mizuki-sensei! How likely is it that the bunshin will be one of the practical tests on the exam?"

Looking up from the lunch and book in front of him "Well, I can´t really say, I mean it´s not even decided until just before the exam, but I guess the probability is fairly high, it´s a common test after all. And based on the last attempt you did Naruto, I would say that yes you would fail the test, unfortunately as you have improved very well since you started training with Kurenai-sensei and Hyuuga-san" the praise made Naruto give off a beaming smile for a moment, until he remembered the context.

Mizuki looked over the otherwise empty classroom, today it was just their group that were having lunch here as Hinata had asked Sakura about something that had delayed them and then they had simply not bothered to go outside despite the wonderful weather, he really would have preferred to do this with just Naruto present but on the other hand, maybe he would get a chance at a Byakuugan eye or two... At least things had worked as he planned.

"Well you know Naruto, there are a few ways to get around a failure at the exam" that instantly got the attention of the boy "one that I think might suit you is that you could try to get ahold of the scroll of restricted techniques that is kept in the Hokage´s tower."

"What do you mean, ways of getting around the exam?" Sakura asked.

"I´m not really supposed to actually tell any students so I would ask you to keep it to yourselves, but didn´t you ever wonder how some shinobi could -graduate- at such young age or with such uneven skills? There are a number of tests hidden around the village that if you can find out about it and... do whatever is suitable for that test, then you automatically pass."

"I´ve never heard of anything like that!" Sakura said disbelievingly.

"I most certainly would hope so, they´re meant to be secret after all!" Mizuki replied with a grin.

"So why are you telling us then?"

"Actually, I´m telling Naruto, you girls are going to graduate anyway, either of you might even have a chance to contend for rookie of the year position, and I´m doing it because I think he should graduate, a poor showing only with the bunshin keeping him back would just be silly."

"Anyway, I believe the first technique described on the scroll is the kage bunshin, it´s jonin level but your abundant chakra means it should actually be more suited to you than the regular bunshin, just remember, the techniques are restricted for a reason, often because it takes persons with specific abilities to safely use them, so if you choose to do this, make sure you´re careful ok?"

Getting a slow nod from the kids he continued "and if you need a place to practice out of sight, I know a perfect location just outside of the village, I use it myself..." what he did not tell them was exactly what he used it for...

* * *

-*later that day*-

"So, do you think Mizuki was serious?" Sakura asked, getting an quick nodded yes from Naruto while Hinata hesitated a moment before adding "I´ve heard about something like that I think." instantly having Sakura´s full attention "Really?"

"J-just that someone graduated early by passing some special test and how my grandfather was angry about it because it had something to do with the Hyuuga mansion."

After a moments thought Sakura said "Oh, well I guess that makes sense, I bet it was about sneaking in or something, anyone who manage to get in there past the guards and all the Byakuugan users, they would have to be exceptionally good at stealth after all."

"We can at least try to figure out if what he said about the scroll and where it´s kept is true, getting Naruto a guaranteed passing grade would be good, if only to have him stop worrying about it, we might learn something useful as well."

Naruto´s cheerful look was a bit unsure "Are you sure you want to risk it, I mean it´s me that needs it?"

"If we go, we go together." Sakura ended that discussion without ambivalence, even if slightly surprised at just how firmly she actually thought that. She understood perfectly well that Kurenai had worked them into a team, but it was still a bit disconcerting to notice just how solid the thought of that team had become in her unconscious mind.

"Hinata, can you try to scout the tower from the outside, see if you can find the scroll, and any hidden guards and traps?" then added with a little smile "And especially if you can see if anyone there is likely to see through genjutsu too easily, like some of your relatives..."

"Y-yes, sure. You h-have a plan?"

"They will be looking for fullscale illusions and invisibility, but if I do a very tightly controlled, much smaller and more limited genjutsu that merely reduce noise and our visibility I think our chances should be good if we pick a good time while it´s dark."

* * *

-*a few days later*-

In the end, the most difficult part was actually to time it so that neither Kurenai nor Sakura´s parents would notice their nocturnal absence. The guards coverage of the Hokage tower was heavy, but their focus was on the part where the Sandaime lived and worked, with the storage part having a larger share of traps instead, with Sakura making sure they melded with the shadows and any noise was dampened and with Hinata employing Byakuugan to spot hidden or approaching guards and especially all those nasty traps while Naruto added simple strength and acting as their pack mule and stealth expert they got in and out surprisingly easy, with all three of them gaining a new respect for how powerful teh Byakuugan really was, and the right scroll had indeed been in the room and position Mizuki had said.

And it seemed noone had neither noticed nor followed them.

* * *

-*o*-

Naruto was busy trying to work out the kage bunshin that indeed had been the first technique on the scroll, Hinata was trying to help him by looking on with Byakuugan activated to hopefully see what went right and what didn´t when he tried to perform it, both she and Sakura had already managed the technique, as for someone with good control and some intelligence it wasn´t really terribly hard to achieve even if it was probably quite a lot harder to master, although they had already agreed to be careful with it, just creating a single shadowclone was tiring, and the second part of the writing described the mass shadow clone version, Sakura had shuddered at the thought of trying to create dozens of clones, no wonder it was a restricted technique when the mass version was so dangerously similar to the basic version, if she had tried that it would likely have killed her instantly.

Sakura, being used to studying hard had been looking further ahead on the scroll and generally just fervently agreeing with keeping the techniques described restricted from general use.

"Mmm, this looks interesting, I always did wonder about that..."

Naruto, currently taking -a short rest while I think about it again- was quickly looking over at her interestedly "What´cha find Sakura-chan, some other supergreat technique?" and started to move to her so he could look.

"STOP! Naruto, this is not for you!" Sakura quickly and loudly exclaimed, covering the scroll with herself just in case, bringing a disappointed and hurt look on the boy.

"Aaaw you don´t have to be mean about it" he whined.

"Sorry Naruto, it´s just that this technique relies heavily on extremely tight chakra-control, and even a small mistake can be lethal, and you know, while you have plenty of it your control isnt great, and this would be difficult enough that I dont even want Hinata to try it either. Akiko might be able to do it but I wouldn´t want to risk it even with her." that seemed to quickly mollify Naruto.

"But no, the interesting part is that it explains why almost noone seem to use anything stronger than chakra-strings, this explains how to make something more like a rope or maybe a hose as it says that the more advanced variant can be used to channel elemental chakra, it seems that the diminishing returns are quite dramatic, the rope requires an extremly higher degree of control and as much chakra as probably several dozens of strings, but the amount of force you can get from it at best is just a few times higher."

"Oh, all right then, guess I should get back to practicing my own thing then, would´a been cool finding some other super technique though"

"Naruto-kun, you know what Kurenai-sensei says about that, you cant expect to improve without training, or risk I guess as these restricted techniques seem to be easier but more risky." Hinata added with an admonishing tone.

"Yes that does seem to be the main tradeoff..." Sakura added slowly with her attention back on the scroll again.

A few minutes later, Naruto made another try "Kage Bunshin!" and with a very noticeable *poof* five clones appeared, startling and quickly worrying the girls who already knew how straining it had been to create just a single, though Naruto didn´t seem to have any problems yet at least.

"Be careful Naruto, don´t overdo it!" Sakura quickly shouted.

A very pleased Naruto happily replied with "Nah, don´t worry Sakura-chan, this barely tires me at all, actually I dont feel ANY real drain." with a doubting look on her face Sakura looked over to Hinata who was looking at Naruto with Byakugan active and then answering her unspoken question.

"N-no he doesn´t seem to be straining at all."

"Well, I guess he should make sure to read the part on the mass version then."

* * *

A few hours later Hinata suddenly startled "Someone´s coming! Oh wait, it´s... Mizuki-sensei?"

Mizuki appeared on a treebranch neatly overlooking the small clearing, on the other side of it from the small hut the three youths were sitting in front of.

"How nice, it seems the demon fox really did take the bait." at the sight of the uncomprehending faces in front of him he continued "Oh please, you still haven´t figured out that it´s because you´re the monster that nearly destroyed the village 13 years ago that everyone hates you!"

"Well, not that it matters any more, as now you will die anyway!" he then with a quick movement drew one of his oversized shuriken from his back and threw it at the now completely stunned Naruto.

Fortunately, while the girls were nearly as surprised, they were not stunned for quite as long. Before Mizuki had even gone halfway through his throw Sakura started a few extremly hurried hand seals "chakra no nawa!" causing a slight shimmering tendril to shoot out from her outstretched hand, reaching out and just barely nudging the huge shuriken slightly aside, after which she collapsed to the ground with an angry mumble "drats, still not enough control...". Hinata almost as quickly took hold of Naruto´s collar and dragged him towards Sakura, just in time for the large shuriken to embed itself only in the ground just next to him. Barely a handslength away from causing him serious harm.

'_Oh shit oh shit, dont panic_' Hinata tried telling herself, not exactly easy after seeing Sakura slump down from almost loosing control of whatever she did, letting out far more chakra than was healthy, and Naruto was completely shocked from hearing that '_he... was... the... Kyuubi? Impossible! Except, that red chakra... The chakra he had -aside- from his own!_'

"Naruto! Snap out of it! You´re not the Kyuubi itself! I will always remain your friend and I can´t protect both you and Sakura!" her rapid little speech obviously had an effect on Naruto but he was still clearly dazed and half out of it.

Just the fact that it was the most Naruto had ever heard Hinata say so quickly and without even a hint of stutter was certainly enough to get his attention.

Mizuki showed a nasty smile "How about we test that theory a bit?" after which he threw a bunch of normalsized shurikens spread just enough to cover all three. Naruto was still getting over the shock, Sakura would clearly not be able to move in time, or possibly barely at all for a while.

As she saw Mizuki begin the throws, Hinata almost panicked, she was the only one currently able to do anything, she knew it and almost despaired... But she couldn´t let the others get hit! Simply could not let it happen. With a desperate wish that it would be enough, she spun "Kaiten!"

The bubble of spinning chakra was just wide enough to cover the area where both Naruto and Sakura were. It just barely worked though and Hinata felt several of the projectiles nudge or glance against her, as she had started to spin she had also activated her eyes to get the allround view, and as she stopped spinning she breathed slightly easier since she already knew that the other two had not been hit, barely in Sakura´s case, but they were both unharmed, even though her Kaiten had been very poor, it had been enough. This time at least.

Mizuki was not impressed "THAT´s supposed to be a Kaiten?" he laughed loudly, after a while he managed to speak again "Oh I´m going to enjoy taking you down little girl!"

That got a growl from Naruto while Hinata added a clipped and angry "W-worked enough!"

"Hehehe, so the fox and his pack tries to show some teeth, well it wont help you, it´s just a matter of time, one of you even managed to incapacitate herself to defend the damned ninetails from just my little hello-gift. Well, demon, you´re not going to pester the world much longer and how nice of you it was to bring the Hyuuga with you, I will be ever so happy about taking one of her eyes myself, and I´m quite sure Orochimaru will be very happy to entertain whatever remains of her I bring to him, he´s always wanted to properly dissect a Hyuuga."

That got a truly, VERY, angry growl from Naruto "Nobody... hurts... my friends! Tajuu Kage Bunshin!"

The noise that followed when dozens, hundreds of shadow clones popped into existence all over the clearing, and in the trees around it, was almost like hearing a far away thunderstorm, and the shock on Mizuki´s face that then changed to a hint of fear was wonderful to see for Naruto "Take care of Sakura-chan Hinata, this bastard is in for the world of a beating!" then the clones simply started to leap at Mizuki, too angry to even consider anything beyond just getting in there and beat him into the ground.

Hinata quickly noticed something, '_there´s more of that red chakra in Naruto, much more... of course, the Kyuubi, but why so much now, I´ve never seen that happen when we´ve been training... damned!_'

"Naruto, calm down! You´re drawing chakra from the Kyuubi because you´re angry!" she shouted.

Naruto startled a bit but gave a slight nod and seemed to calm down a bit, whatever he did, the torrent of red in him as seen by Hinata´s Byakuugan became a less chaotic flow that no longer seemed like it might consume him at any moment. That let her calm down a bit while moving over to Sakura who wasn´t in quite as bad shape as she had feared, chakra exhaustion could be bad, but this wasn´t critical at least.

The unstructured attacks of the shadow clones were relatively easy to defend against, on their own, and Mizuki held out for maybe a minute while dispelling well over five dozen clones, as all it took was a single solid hit and a clone went up in smoke, but Naruto´s clones quickly noted the same and haphazardly began trying anything they could think of to hasten a victory, a victory that was probably already certain as Mizuki had clearly tired from defending against the fierce but uncoordinated and angry assault.

A bunch of clones started throwing stones at Mizuki from a distance, then one clone said something, making a group around it look at each other, followed by an evil smile. Mizuki was still dispelling clones rapidly, but now he was taking hits as well, then the group of clones, after spreading out started to produce a glow between their stretched out hands, to the sound of over a dozen shouts of "Uzumaki Bakuhatsu!" a small barrage of poorly made chakra bombs were launched, over half exploded too early or too late, a quarter just fizzled out, none actually hit Mizuki. One clone even dispelled itself with an accidental early blast.

But two exploded close enough to cause both some minor damage and a bit of a stun effect. That was all that was needed for the clones already jumping in to quickly swamp Mizuki in hits, knocking him out in just a few seconds.

Naruto swayed a bit and quickly dispelled the clones, except for two that kept watch over Mizuki, then sat down heavily and looked over at the still mostly prone Sakura, and what little of her that wasn´t on the ground was swaying in a very worrying fashion "Oi, Sakura-chan?" with a worried tone.

"I´m... fine..." at the questioning looks from the other two she realised what she had said and how she felt, and more importantly, probably looked, and revised that to "I mean... I WILL be... fine, Hinata... help me get... my water bottle... and a ration... pack" with Hinata helping her she went on "I did the chakra... rope technique... too quickly... and without enough... practise, was like... blowing out the bottom... of a water tank, the chakra just rushed... out, before I had any chance... to get control."

A rather stunned silence followed while Sakura got some water and food, now at least sitting up, although leaning heavily against Hinata who had sat down behind her to prop her up as best she could.

"...Kyuubi..." Naruto half whispered.

"No Naruto, you are not it!" Hinata said with unusual strength in her voice "Remember all the trouble you have had w-with that red chakra, the one you have apart from your own?"

'_Oh, of course._' when Hinata said it like that, it wasn´t hard for Sakura to connect the dots, especially since her theoretical studies had gone quite a bit further than the average, Naruto still looked badly uncomfortable though so she strained to speak up "She´s right... you know... You´re clearly the... jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi... the one it´s sealed within... you and it are... still two separate things."

"...Ok... You know anything about it?" Sakura´s reply was a gesture for -a little- combined with mouthing -later-.

After a bit more rest "Where was it... Kurenai-shishou was going to be... tonight?" a still harried looking but at least somewhat more coherent sounding Sakura asked.

"She´s d-doing close in patrol sweeps to the east of the village." Hinata replied.

"She doesn´t go very... far from the guardpost... then does she?"

"No more than 20 minutes away."

"Ok then... Naruto, can you keep... your clones here... watching him?" slightly surprised at getting adressed again, as he had been trying to think things over, Naruto took a moment to figure out what had been said and then nodded "We need to get to that... guardpost then."

"And soon... I´ll bet Mizuki... actually use this place... as a meeting place, and I dont think we... want to be the ones doing any more... meetings here." Sakura continued wearily.

Naruto looked surprised, but Hinata simply nodded and asked "But y-you can´t walk yet?"

"Won´t be a problem, I´ll just carry her!" Naruto quickly blurted out, already looking like he was getting energy back. "You ok enough to hang on to me Sakura-chan?"

Sakura agreed, then told Hinata to carry the scroll and keeping as good lookout as she could while they started moving paralell to the palisade around the village, slowly at first but quickly picking up speed as Naruto recovered from straining himself earlier with the huge mass of shadow clones. Moving as cautiously as ever before and then some.

Getting closer to the guardpost, Sakura made them stop "Hinata, put a small genjutsu on the scroll will you, I´d rather not have anyone recognise it before we have a chance to talk with Kurenai."

Easily done, even if Hinata wasn´t nearly as good at it as Sakura, but Hinata also wasn´t exhausted at the moment, and it was questionable if Sakura would have been able to do it at all herself right now.

Carefully approaching the post until they had been properly identified and led in by one of the guards and keeping their statement as minimal as possible, just about saying that something had happened and they really badly needed to speak with Kurenai, which caused a runner to be sent off.

Another guard entered, clearly a Hyuuga, surprised at seeing his clan heiress and the state of exhaustion of Sakura who was resting on a bed with the others beside her.

And then he looked again, at what Hinata was carrying, obviously seeing through the illusion.

Before he had time to say anything "Hold! Don´t say it, that will wait until we talk with sensei!" Hinata said with a commanding tone, startling the Hyuuga guard, never having seen her assertive, or even heard of it before, but quickly composed himself "Of course Hinata-sama!", drawing obviously wondering looks from the other guards present.

The runner soon intercepted Kurenai and told her about the three students who had -asked most strongly- to speak with her. That alone was most rare by itself, while Naruto was a wildcard, Hinata usually kept him in check, but they did sometimes use evenings in her absence for some lighter training or simply -fun and games- so to speak and at least once that had resulted in a bit of a commotion that could just as well have been an actually planned prank but she had soon found out it was random chance combined with another of those -accidents- happening around Naruto that had simply had unlucky results. On second thought, that was probably the last time there had been such accidents, and it was quite a while since then now...

But they had arrived at the guardpost with Naruto carrying an apparently physically unharmed Sakura who was so exhausted that she was unable to stand, barely even to sit upright by herself.

And that they came to the guardpost as if ready to fight at any moment, Hinata constantly using the Byakuuga to scan around them until they were all inside. Not so good.

Surprisingly, when she arrived it was neither of her apprentices that spoke up but rather Sakura "Mizuki tricked us sensei, he´s a traitor." that caused a wave of surprise and even some shock through those assembled "He wanted the scroll-" she said and pointed to it next to Hinata who obliged by dropping the illusion on it, causing a few gasps when those who knew what it was recognised it "-and he wanted Naruto dead and... and he wanted to take one of Hinata´s eyes for himself and bring her -remains-, I dont know if... if he meant living or dead but alive I think as he said someone called Orochimaru would be happy to entertain and... and dissect her, it was apparently something he had long wished for-"... The reactions around them were clearly shocked now but all were welltrained and it soon passed and was replaced by thoughts and actions. The Hyuuga chuunin seemed ready to walk through rocks despite the strictly controlled face that was the norm in the clan.

'_Orochimaru... That was really bad news..._'

Kurenai felt more than a little dazed but soon started to get the rest of the story from them, a team of guards was quickly sent to find and secure the place were Mizuki was still unconscious and held tied up by Naruto´s clones and a runner was sent off to alert and inform the ANBU.

Barely half an hour later, the runner returned and notified them that Mizuki had been taken into custody by the ANBU team, finally allowing Naruto to dispel his last clones, which he did with a relieved sigh, a mere two clones wasn´t a real strain but keeping them around for so long was still tiresome, Sakura was at last sitting up on her own, just barely, while Kurenai had finally got most of the story, even including how they had planned to place the scroll back again in 2 days from now if they needed to.

Their analysis about the defences in and around the Hokages tower was of great interest to the ANBU who had arrived early on in the story. Not that they were in any way happy about why they got the chance to hear such an analysis.

Kurenai felt there was still something left out however, and she had a nagging feeling that she knew what it was. "Could everyone please give me and my team a bit of privacy, they need rest before I take them home and I would like a chance to talk to them without all of you hanging over my shoulders ok?"

'_my team_' Sakura thought with tired amusement that it was finally official '_hah, I knew it!_'

After people shuffling off, Kurenai went on "So, would you like to share with me what you avoided telling before?" at the reactions that caused, '_yup I was right_' Kurenai thought '_and I´m probably right what it´s about as well. Well at least they still seem to have cooperated just fine and they´re certainly acting like a group now so I guess Hinata and Sakura didn´t react too badly._'

"He said I was a monster, that I´m the Kyuubi." Naruto said anxiously. Being told that it was not so by the two girls had been reassuring to a degree, but not nearly enough.

"You´re no monster Naruto. You are however the jailer of the Kyuubi, and that´s a very different matter."

"You knew about this?" Sakura said with some shock, while Naruto and Hinata were too stunned to say anything for a moment. Just as Naruto looked about to shout something, Kurenai raised her hand in a -wait- gesture towards him.

"The Yondaime sacrificed his life to seal the Kyuubi into Naruto, on the day of his birth, as only a newborn or someone with massive chakra, or better yet both like you Naruto, could handle the strain of all that chakra suddenly made part of it, he did it as a desperate solution to save the village. However, several other villages use or tries to use the great tailed beasts once sealed into humans as living weapons of destruction, there are also rumours of others trying to make use of the beasts, and then there´s the issue of Naruto´s clan, so the Sandaime made an absolute rule, that noone was allowed to speak of who it had been sealed in, nor who were Naruto´s parents, even if few actually know about that, as an attempt to protect you at least from those forces from outside the village that would likely have tried to take you for their own, it was a vain attempt to give you something at least vaguely resembling a normal life. To some degree it also did succeed, those in the village who knows but can overcome their fear and hatred for the Kyuubi, or at least realise that the jailer is not the jailed, have often been decent enough, but I´ve also seen clearly how much it has affected the next generation, dangerously close to making you an outcast..."

"Wait... Parents?!" Naruto blinked a few times in a daze "My clan?"

Kurenai made an unhappy face "I´m sorry, I can´t tell you unless you find out yourself or the Hokage gives permission." she thought for a moment "Just know this, your parents loved you greatly, and your clan is mostly down to you, at least that anyone here knows of, there are probably distant relatives elsewhere, but I dont know of any actually in Konoha. Well, aside from the Hokage´s own clan, as it has some connections to yours as well."

After a slight pause she went on "If you want to try to ask the Hokage about it, I´ll come with you and help as I can..."

"Can we, go talk to him tomorrow?" Naruto asked in nearly a whisper, getting a soft but clear nod from Kurenai.

"I will come with you." both the young girls said almost in unison, causing them to look at each other, Sakura smiled slightly while Hinata blushed and finally smiled as well.

"Did you know my parents?"

Kurenai had to think for a bit about the quiet question before replying "Just barely, I had recently become a genin and..." she frowned a bit "I´m sorry Naruto I can´t really say much without breaking the hokage´s rule."

Naruto gave a small, not happy, but at least somewhat understanding nod.

* * *

-*Next day*-

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage was troubled. Finding that one of the teachers at the academy was a traitor was very bad by itself, that he was a spy working for Orochimaru, was extremely worrying. And while he was going to call on Naruto and the others to him, before he had the chance, Kurenai had requested that they see him first thing today.

He feared that he knew all too well what it would be about, and unhappy as we was with his solution to try to keep Naruto hidden, he worried what might come from it becoming general knowledge, no, he worried about some of the things that WOULD come from revealing any of the secrets about him, about either of his parents as well as the demon fox he imprisoned with his life. He fervently wished that Naruto would agree not to make it public knowledge.

Sighing, he got up to go usher them in. Opening the door and waving them in he almost stopped for a moment, surprised at also seeing both the girls in Kurenai´s not quite yet existing team. Seeing Kurenai smirk slightly he knew she had seen his hesitation if ever so slight, and simply smiled back. While his back was turned to them as he walked back to his desk, he performed the privacy technique very very carefully and with as much strength as he could, this was certainly an occasion he did not want to risk any random spies of whatever affiliation listening in on.

They quietly seated and then the Hokage began "So, it is with more than a little trepidation that I ask you for the reason of this meeting..."

"It´s about the Kyuubi and Naruto" Kurenai answered, taking charge before any of the younger three got a chance to say anything, especially anything they might later regret "Mizuki told him he was the demon, obviously I had to tell him that this was a lie, but to do that I also had to say in what way it was a lie, and that meant that I also needed to touch on the subject of his parents, and while I avoided breaking your rule..."

After a short hesitation she went on "I believe he needs to know who he is, and I think he can handle it well enough and understand why it should remain as much of a secret as possible, the girls already know as much as he does and I consider them completely trustworthy."

The Hokage sighed deeply after a moment of thought "Very well, put like that I don´t really have much reason not to go ahead... But know this Naruto, both your parents and their clans had many powerful enemies, while my rule does in fact allow you to tell anyone you wish about this, I absolutely must ask that you only tell anyone that you are completely certain of, adding to that the issue with the one you seal away from this world, there are any number of people that might want you dead, captured or worse if they find out. I worry that too many people have already found out, but the fewer the better."

Naruto was sitting halfstunned by anticipation, worry and awe. Unlike his normal hyperactive style, he was currently just too nervous to even think about doing anything beyond listening with rapt attention.

The hokage leaned back as he spoke up as if settling in to tell a long story "To the east of the lands of Hi no Kuni, wherein Konoha is located, a bit outside the coast, there is an island that was once known as the Uzu no Kuni, it´s still there of course but after the destruction of it´s ninja village, it just fell apart and is now just some more or less independent villages and towns, it was a small nation, prospering by their good use of the sea and in part thanks to their ninja village, Uzushiogakure, which was a close ally of Konoha, and renowned for the skill of their shinobi and especially their abilities with sealing techniques and their tendency for long and healthy lives. They became too famous, too feared for their skills and prowess for their own good however, and due to their small size, were overwhelmed by sheer numbers before Konoha could send help when they were attacked."

"Your mother Naruto, Uzumaki Kushina... was from their large and quite prominent Uzumaki clan, it´s survivors were scattered over the world when the village was destroyed and I do not know of anyone particular of it but I have heard Uzumaki´s being mentioned here and there over the years, not many but certainly a few at least. Kushina came here to the academy and stayed because she was one of those with the body capable of sealing the Kyuubi as an adult, something the Uzumaki´s had a tradition of helping Konoha with, and because she found her beloved husband here in Namikaze Minato."

That produced a pair of gasps from the younger girls, both having read far more than just the basic history of Konoha. Generating a surprised "Huh, what?" from Naruto while he looked at them, right now he was definitely not in shape to recall even the most minimal of basic historical facts on his own.

"That´s the real name of the Yondaime Naruto." Sakura said "You´re the son of the legendary Yondaime Hokage, isnt he?" she went on and turned to the Sandaime as Naruto went completely shellshocked.

"Yes, he is the son of the Yondaime, the only shinobi ever to recieve the caution -Flee on sight- with the unique addition -Numbers irrelevant- in all other nations Bingo-books. The degree of fear and hatred towards him was a major part of why I went to such lengths to hide any connections between him and Naruto... It was a risk to let him retain his mother´s family name, but I have heard of enough others with the name that I considered it a calculated risk, let people believe he was yet another child of a random refugee from the destruction of Uzushio."

"To make a long and painful story a little shorter, on the day of Naruto´s birth, the traitor Uchiha Madara interfered, or at least that was what he called himself, as giving birth already interferes with the Kyuubi seal, weakening it for a short while, with the result that the Kyuubi somehow got loose, possibly due to Madara´s actions, in the end your mother used the still active link with it through the damaged seal together with her own skills to restrain it while your father used the only technique he knew that would be quick enough right then and there, suicidal as it is, sealing away a part of himself with half that of the Kyuubi gone from this world, hopefully forever, and the other half in you."

"Your parents died desperately trying to protect the village." he added a moment later.

"Madara? Traitor?" Naruto´s questions were spoken quietly.

"He was one of the founders of Konoha as it is now, but he seems to have desired power too much, so when the leader of the other main founding clan, the Senju, was made leader, he was most unhappy and in the end even his own clan rejected him, later he fought with the first Hokage at what is now known as the Valley of the end, where all thought he had perished. It was not until the day of Naruto´s birth we found out that he was still alive, if it really was him that is, despite that he should be several decades older than even myself." he sighed and trailed off, then seemingly recalled something

"Oh yes, I was planning to give them to you much later, when you were grown up and at least made chunin and able to seriously defend yourself, at which point I had also planned to tell you all of this, but now that you already know it´s probably better you get the chance to learn from them, locked away in the tower I have the scrolls left behind by your parents, it is not teaching scrolls like most clans have, since they could not prepare for their untimely deaths but rather mostly notes on their clans and on their techniques, so they are probably most difficult to make sense of but I expect you will be able to learn from them eventually, however in the absence of your parents since Kurenai is in effect acting as your guardian, I would ask that you do not actually try to use anything from the documents without discussing it with her first, if you would prefer that she takes no part in what can probably be called your clan secrets, I would be willing to take that position instead although I will be less available?"

Still far too dazed to think properly, Naruto after a long moment caught up with the relevant part "Nah, I know I can trust my sensei with anything, and she´s both a great teacher and knows hordes of stuff so if there´s anyone suited for making sure I don´t blow myself up or something, it´s her. I´ll probably need help making sense of those notes though so I would like to share them with the girls as well if that´s ok with you oji-san, they´re a lot smarter than me and especially Sakura is great with the written stuff...?"

The Sandaime smiled slightly "They´re yours Naruto, or at least will be as soon as give them to you, I can only ask or advise you, just make sure you´re very careful with who you tell about them or show them to. Also, make sure they´re safely stored. I would offer to store them in the tower, but after last nights escapades of yours I assume you might not consider that safe enough." he said with the smile growing wider.

"And getting around to that, no you´re not in trouble, any of you, not much at least, for breaking into the tower as this was caused by the actions of a traitor who was also one of your teachers. I expect Kurenai fully knows what happened by now so why don´t you two girls help Naruto get over all the surprises while I drag a report out of your sensei."

That got nods from the younger three, though Naruto´s was a bit reluctant and slow. As they were leaving Hinata turned to the Hokage "Ehm, a-no... thank you for setting up my apprenticeship with Kurenai!" she blurted out quite uncharacteristically fast and clear once she got started.

"So you figured that out, seems we have another intelligent soon to be kunoichi in our midst. It was literally my pleasure Hinata-chan." he nodded to her with a smile.

* * *

-*o*-

"I noticed Sakura-chan was looking rather tired, noone said they had been hurt?"

"She was in the middle of trying to learn the Chakra no Nawa from the scroll when Mizuki appeared and used it by reflex to deflect one of those hugely oversized shuriken Mizuki loves using, it seems using that with haste and poor training was not so good."

"I´m surprised she survived at all..." the Hokage said with a scowl "I sincerely hope none of the others tried to learn it?"

"No, she said she specifically stopped them from even looking at it" that got a big sigh of relief from the old man "and I´ve made them promise not to try to use anything else without letting me check it out first. Although I think Sakura was the only one to really read through the scroll and she has become rather prudent about what she´s capable of and what she is not. The problem with the chakra rope technique was not her inability with it but rather using it reactively in haste and before she had had time to practise enough. Even just another hour of practise and she might have gotten away with it."

After a moments pause she went on after giving a wry smile "And frankly I´m happy that she did use it like she did" the Hokage raised an eyebrow questioningly at that "She acted instead of freezing up. I have worked hard to get her away from that and even if what she did was reckless, it was endlessly better than not doing it. Especially since it probably saved Naruto´s life. That Hinata also acted and acted well is even better."

The Hokage nodded understandingly at that, very much in agreement.

"So she may already know other techniques from the scroll?" Kurenai nodded "Oh dear..."

"I´ll have to go over with her what she learned more or less and what she may intend to try and make use of." she added.

The hokage nodded "Now then, the full story from beginning to end." he demanded.

Much later, Kurenai ended with "and since Sakura´s parents were away and she was so exhausted we brought her with us and put her in Hinata´s room for the night just in case, and Naruto insisted on carrying her all the way." she added with an amused smile, getting a chuckle from the Sandaime.

With a more serious face "However, there´s something else... While talking with Naruto about Mizuki, trying to figure out if he had been doing anything previously, I found out that Mizuki in particular has been sabotaging Naruto´s time at the academy, but although by far the worst, others have done what they could to make him fail. No wonder he got so much better once I got him in my clutches."

With a very unhappy face and yet another sigh, he was doing a lot of that today he felt, the Hokage asked "More traitors?"

"I don´t think so, except of course they have sabotaged academy training for a future shinobi of the village, which could be argued as treason just by itself."

* * *

-*o*-

Sakura had told Hinata and Naruto what she knew about tailed beasts and jinchuuriki, not all that much but far more than the others knew before, Naruto was really not taking it all that well though "You ok Naruto?"

"No... Yes... I don´t know... I mean, why me? I..."

Hinata was the one that answered "Who else?"

Naruto startled and looked over at her "What?"

"Who would he place such a burden on if he could not place it on his own family? And who else could he trust with it?"

Naruto looked about to argue but after a long moment, he relaxed back into the pillows he was leaning against, and a hint of a smile appeared, replacing the frown that had previously remained long enough to worry both girls "Yeah, I guess..."

* * *

-*o*-

"Did you ever even stop to think about the fact that with your current scores overall, failing only a single practical test would not cause you to fail overall?"

A very embarassed Naruto "Ehehm, sorry sensei, I´ll do better next time, promise!"

"Oh you already did -better- Naruto, so you need to keep working hard to top this." Kurenai got a beaming smile and a forceful nod in reply.

-*o*-

* * *

AN:

Kitsu524, thank you kindly for such a glowing review. I´ll probably remain " a little rough" a long time yet (maybe forever due to the writingstyle that works for me), but I hope and aim to improve. And I can say this much, this story will in part be close to canon, but the butterfly effect is present from a long while back so even if basic motivations will move events in the same directions as canon, the specific events will often differ a lot. For example, there will be a mission to Wave, but from all the stories I have read so far, not even one comes close to the outline I have. And even if I´ve been repeatedly surprised by how close in this or that detail some other stories are to my own at times, the story overall not so close, and I have a little collection of plot twists coming up, and most of them seem to be rather original. I´ve even managed to come up with some future couples that noone will have predicted, never thought I would do something like that. ^_^ I hope you and many others will like where the story goes in the end.

.

Yes, the Sandaime knows a little more about what happened during Madara´s attack than in canon, not much more though.

Next update is a bit uncertain how long it will take, I already have enough for the next chapter, but it´s far too onedimensional for my approval so far and I´m uncertain how long it will take me to finish it, or possibly split it into two chapters with added scenes to complete both. Around 5-6 chapters before reaching graduation for the kids.


	13. Connections

Ok finally this is getting done, a few thousand words taking 2 weeks when I´m capable of ten thousand in two days, that, gets quite a bit annoying. I´ve also spent a week at my dad since last chapter and then it took a whole week after that just to get back to writing and even then I kept getting sidetracked by writing for other stories or chapters than this one...

And getting officially a year older as well in the meantime, anyone who figured that out already, go eat a cookie for being observant. ^_^

And this chapter is actually just about half of the original chapter with the new stuff added, in retrospect it really needed to be split in two, desperately.

For those who read my little oneshot crossover fic, yes I know that it could really use some more chapters, I would even like to add some, which is why I left it as officially not complete, I simply just do not have even a hint of exactly how to continue it or where to go with it, so until I do, that´s as long as it gets.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

* * *

Connections

"There you are Sakura, feeling ok now?"

"I´m fine, just a tiny bit tired." Sakura replied with a small smile. She wasn´t really tired but she still did feel the effect from chakra exhaustion. She knew Kurenai understood what she meant.

"Good, lets join my less than patient apprentices then." Kurenai said as she led the way out to the rear of the house.

"You asked them to wait and they didn´t?"

"They decided that doing their daily elemental practise while waiting was a perfect opportunity. I give it about even chances that they´re actually practising rather than playing with the techniques, that is, Hinata is probably practising and Naruto is probably playing."

Sakura chuckled, she would not bet against that, fortunately Naruto seemed to learn from that as well, even if slower.

Walking out the back door, Hinata was sitting next to the pond, concentrating on making a tiny cloud of mist hovering over the water surface to move as she wanted, several steps away Naruto was somewhere in the middle between playing and practising, using the very basic technique for moving air he was supposed to use, but instead of the practise he was supposed to use it for, he was clearly trying to use it to mimic the mist creation Hinata had used to start her practise. It was not working very well.

He was already splashed wet in several places of his green on black clothes, and as they stopped to watch, he tried again, using the Kaze no ugoku to make a tiny whirlwind that he moved so it connected with the surface of the water in the pond... And instead of mist he jumped back slightly as his little vortex sucked up water and promptly sprayed some of the water onwards back up towards Naruto. Sakura had a hard time not laughing, but managed to keep it to a strained giggle.

Kurenai was not quite so amused "Naruto!" her target jumped again and in the process lost control of the still swirling vortex of wind, and while he turned he got the biggest splashing so far, causing him to blink "Ehm... Oops? Hehe..." Hinata didn´t look away from her own technique but a muted giggle was heard from her.

Kurenai shook her head at him "You do realise that if you use the training I showed you, you will learn to do something like what you just tried in less than half the time? And yes it is possible to do a mist technique with a wind technique as long as you have a water surface nearby, it is just very rarely worth the effort." she didn´t bother telling him to go change into something dry like she would have with someone else, by now she knew he never caught a cold.

"Ehm... I´ll do the real practise tonight, promise!" Kurenai nodded in reply, knowing very well that he kept promises. Especially for training. His stated goal of becoming hokage might not be as outspoken now as it had once been, but the ambition to improve towards such a level was still clearly there. Even more so after he got the explanations after the event with Mizuki.

They stepped aside a few paces and talked silently the few minutes until Hinata was finished.

Hinata sighed with some weariness while the tiny cloud of mist dissipated "This is much h-harder than it looks."

"You´re doing just fine Hinata, and it gets less straining once you start getting a better feel for your elements. Now then, the reason I wanted you together was because it´s now unofficially official that you get credited for a single day B-rank mission for the mess with Mizuki." Kurenai turned more serious.

"However, for the time being the whole matter is being kept secret, so you can´t tell anyone what happened, even your records will only list that a mission happened, details will only be kept in the secure archive, and I have the payment you get from it waiting for you inside."

"Can´t tell -anyone-?" Naruto grimaced and got a confirmation in return "Never ever?"

Kurenai chuckled "Eventually, when it doesn´t matter any more, but it will have to wait, probably at least a year or two, maybe longer."

Naruto sighed "What about the stuff old man hokage was getting me?"

"It will take at least a few days of hard work to add a secure part of the basement, it wont take too long I promise. Anxious to see if you can find any relatives?"

"Mmm, actually no, I... I, my parents wrote them and I want to see them..."

Kurenai nodded, any connection was better than none. Then noticed that Sakura looked a bit spaced out and poked her.

"What, oh... Just surprised at getting credited with a B-mission before I even become genin..." inner Sakura was doing something that might be called an energetic cheerleader routine while shouting about how awesome they were.

"Even if Mizuki under normal circumstances would not cause such a high ranking, the fact that he was your teacher and that he could prepare while you were effectively ambushed, not to mention that he wanted two of you dead and to deliver Hinata to Orochimaruu and that you are not even genin yet, all combined the danger level was judged as high."

"Ok..." that made sense even if it still felt surprising.

"Now then, the thing all of you learned from the scroll, I need to make sure you can use it safely, techniques don´t end up as restricted just for fun, are you up to it right now Sakura?" Kurenai ended looking at Sakura.

"As long as you don´t want me to do several or keep it up for long, sure. And I already read everything on the scroll and made sure the others know to be careful, I think we will be ok. The description and warnings on the scroll were extensive and detailed."

"That´s a good start at least. Go ahead then, single clone, best as you can do it."

Sakura took a few seconds to focus, then made the single hand seal needed and spoke "Kage bunshin!" a single perfect copy of her *poofed* into existence, after looking at it for a few seconds she nodded "Ok, managed a good one on first try, don´t want to have to redo it a lot today. I still haven´t got the skill needed to make the smoke effect optional, but purely concerning skill, it´s not very difficult at least."

Kurenai nodded and focused her limited chakrasense on the clone then back on Sakura and nodded again.

Then she was a bit surprised at how the clone with an impatient gesture looked over to her.

"Well come on, lets get this going before miss fancy hair starts running out of juice then!" the Sakura clone said assertively, causing the others to glance at it oddly. Sakura went *huh* with wide eyes staring at what was supposed to be a copy of herself.

Naruto started laughing "Your own clone... Is making fun of you!"

Kurenai finally spoke up "So, how long will Sakura be fine with keeping a clone like you then?"

"If we´re not doin anythin else, she´ll be good for an hour no problem."

Turning over to the real Sakura "You agree Sakura?"

"Well, at least half an hour..." Sakura said a bit hesitant, the clone rolled her eyes sarcastically "Pfft, too cautious as usual fancy hair, you wont be hurting any before at least two hours, with an hour you will still have plenty chakra for tomorrow at the academy."

"Hey what´s with the -fancy hair- thing?" original Sakura demanded.

"Well I thought the alternative might be a bit much since we´re not alone."

"Ehm, what? The alternative?" Sakura asked with bewilderment.

"The pink bush?"

Sakura blinked and just stared for a moment before blushing badly, earning a snigger from her clone "Told´ya" and some poorly muffled amusement from the others.

"Starting a debating club all by yourself Sakura-chan?" Naruto got a not too harsh smack on the head for the quip by a rather distracted Sakura glaring at her own clone. It still took a while for him to stop laughing.

"Right... Hinata then."

Hinata neatly performed the technique, not bothering to speak up, and her clone was just as perfect.

"Ok, a bit more strain for you to do it, but you already know that. Just keep in mind never to make too many or when you´re already tired, I think I agree with Sakura´s suggestion of not trying for more than 3 clones at all. Probably stick with just a single."

Both Hinata nodded in perfect synchronisation in reply to each of Kurenai´s statements. Kurenai seemed to loose focus for a moment, looking back and forth between them, then Naruto softly quipped about everyones clones making fun of them, getting Hinatas clone that was close enough to hear to giggle slightly, Hinata looked at her and a moment later did the same.

"Ehm, what exactly just happened there Hinata?"

"... Mmm, N-narutos words m-made my clone remember the pi..." she started blushing severely "th-the joke S-sakuras clone made, I wanted to know what w-was funny so I j-just focused on the clone a-and suddenly I knew what it was thinking."

"Huh... Can you do that Sakura?" Sakura looked over at her clone for a moment then both turned towards Kurenai and shook their heads almost in unison, not quite making Kurenai go crosseyed at the somewhat strange stereo effect.

She looked over at the third of her charges "Naruto, can you do that?"

"Dunno, never tried. Kage bunshin!" Naruto almost shouted it, and 6 neat copies of him appeared "Ooops, sorry sensei, I have trouble getting just a single, and now that I wasn´t even really concentrating on it, well it´s easier to make too many than too few for me you know?"

Kurenai nodded, she had long since become well aware of that little -problem-.

Naruto focused for a moment "Nope, can´t sense anything from them."

Kurenai nodded "Well it´s obvious you´re not even close to straining even with 6." she walked over to a clone "Right then, lets see if this works as it should." she whispered something to the clone and then almost effortlessly punched it out of existence.

"Hey! What´cha do that for?"

"What did I tell tell the clone Naruto?"

"What? Eeh, you said -number nine-" he blinked a few times "How did I know that?"

"Because you get the memories of the clones when they dispel, it was originally created as a technique for spying. Didn´t work out as meant though."

"In what way shishou?"

"It´s not... unlimited enough. It´s excellent for getting simple or small amounts of information, things that doesn´t require too much focus. Something the clone saw or heard just before being dispelled will carry over well, but memory isn´t perfect, so if a clone does things over a day and then dispels, you might get a vague sense of what it did and wether something special happened, something that it specifically recalled. You also can´t take in and actually remember any amount of information so instantly without loss."

"Huh... So if I read a book and my clone reads it as well?" Sakura asked.

"Then when it dispels you might get a little bit extra understanding of what you read, or perhaps remember it slightly better. Or you might end up with nothing more than you recalled from reading it yourself."

"...But if I try practising something hard?" Naruto wanted to know.

"If it´s a matter of figuring out something difficult to do, like when you learned how to do a genjutsu dispel, then the clones can add a lot, although because the clones are still you-" she looked over at Sakura´s clone "-normally at least, they will still act like you, so what you do wrong, most clones will also do wrong, but all it takes is that one stands out and does it right to give you the breakthrough."

"So, great for training some things, but only minimally helpful with others..." Sakura summarised.

"Pretty much. Now..." Kurenai stepped over to Hinata´s clone and pulled it aside to whisper to it. After a moment it shook its head "Ok then, Hinata try to repeat what you did before, the clone can´t just drop the information to you it seems."

Hinata focused a moment "-Number 88- is what you told her."

"Good." Kurenai whispered to the clone again and then dispelled it with a short punch. She looked over to Hinata.

"-Number 73-."

Kurenai nodded in aknowledgement and then stepped over to the Sakura clone who spoke up before she got there "I´d rather dispel myself thank you very much!" Kurenai whispered to it, after which it neatly disappeared almost without any smoke caused. Naruto started laughing again "The clone´s more skilled than yourself!"

Sakura glared for a moment at Naruto "-Number 18-."

"Good, then at least it works as it´s supposed to, aside from your little, oddities..." Kurenai looked over to the side where the remaining Naruto clones were busy doing some little game and wondered over said oddities '_One makes a clone that is a more aggressive and confident, possibly even more skilled than herself, the next makes clones that runs off to play a game when they´re bored or not needed, and the third can somehow access the minds of her clones with just a thought, this is definitely going to give me a headache before we´re even done just figuring out if there´s any more strangeness involved... Not like I´m a pro with shadow clones either._'

* * *

Arriving all three together the next morning at the academy, after having been absent two days all at the same time, if they hadn´t been intentionally almost too late, the amount of questions could have been on the scale of a landslide, but they managed to avoid almost all.

Later in the morning, it was time for sparring, and all three of them found that questions would not be avoidable for ever.

Naruto was up against Gin, one of those he still had problems facing, not because Gin was a great fighter but because he was faster than almost everyone else, including even Kurenai and other highspeed jonin. Fortunately, he sucked badly at regular taijutsu so he had to use his sword, or like now a practise sword of the same type, and that slowed him down at least a little.

'_Oops_!' Naruto turned the beginning of a kick into a sidestep to avoid an attack by Gin, followed by throwing the other leg into a kick, which not surprisingly was avoided, while dropping to the ground and rolling then trying to jump up and get a strike in with a hand fast enough so that Gin couldn´t avoid it.

*oof!* Gin stumbled a bit but quickly recovered and turned it into a quick jump sideways, trying to keep a distance better suited to his short sword, he knew very well he would lose if Naruto could get close and stay there.

Naruto saw Gin´s creepy smile get wider and a moment later flailed wildly to avoid the flurry of short, highly controlled and very fast attacks, despite both parrying with a kunai and dodging quite well it took a while before he had a chance to think about what to counter with, despite the rapid attacks, Gin didn´t manage even a single clean hit, but Naruto got seriously pressed.

Until he managed to add enough sideways force to a parry so that Gin´s attack pattern was disrupted, instantly Naruto went in closer, while just barely avoiding a quick defeat Gin spoke up "So, did you have fun with your girls on tuesday night?" Naruto stumbled slightly and lost momentum.

"Ehehe... I mean, uhm, what are you talking about?" his lapse had let Gin recover, but Naruto had managed to stay close enough to quickly get the upper hand again.

Until Gin added "Did Mizuki get to have fun as well?" causing Naruto´s face to show anger and starting to reply "The bastard he..." as he faltered for a moment and was rewarded with taking a solid hit on his shoulder, training sword or not, it still hurt and he added "Hey that´s cheating!"

Gin´s smile went wider "Thought something happened, and it´s not cheating if you win."

Less than 15 seconds later an annoyed Naruto casually asked "You were saying?" as he held Gin completely locked up halfway to the ground.

"Good move. Dont´t worry I wont tell anyone."

"Ehm, what´s to tell, nothing at all! Definitely not..." a slightly flustered Naruto got a bit incoherent while Gin´s smile seemed to stretch almost from ear to ear as Naruto removed his grip.

.

Sakura was having an interesting time sparring with Akiko. To make things more even between them, they had been allowed to use wires, Sakura was decent enough, getting a major bonus from her highend chakra control.  
But Akiko had taken up the skill as her primary way to fight and had quickly got better at it than Sakura. That no other skills were allowed also meant that Sakura couldn´t use genjutsu even to hide the wire she was controlling.

Again she tried to close in, where her much superior taijutsu would let her win quickly, only to have to jump sideways in an almost uncontrolled fashion at the last moment to avoid getting her leg caught '_Damn, she predicted that way too good. Smart opponents can be sooo troublesome..._' she smiled at how the thought mimiced what Shikamaru had said to her just a few weeks earlier, just before he very annoyingly had defeated her in a sparring match, although at least it had been a close call.

Akiko, being much faster at moving around, had already moved away just enough to be at the edge of range with the four wires Sakura so far knew she had deployed. Sakura preferred just using one or two as a complement but currently she had four out, two of them laid out on the ground during her last attack without keeping hold of any part of them, the attack was real but making something multi purpose had become normal for her by now, practising against Hinata and Naruto and having a chance to win on a regular basis simply made it a requirement. '_Now the question is, will her chakrasensing be enough to spot the hidden wires?_'

Sakura started circling, both of them using a single wire to occasionally lash out with or try to catch the other. Then after she had moved around so Akiko was closer to Sakura´s latest wires and with her back to them, Sakura used the longer of the two wires she held the ends of to connect with one of the two she had dropped and made it launch from behind Akiko.

Another two wires Sakura had not seen before jumped up behind the other girl, one deflecting the wire, the other lancing out to cut its contact with the one Sakura was using to control it. Then the closer one easily flicked the now inert wire away from the area they were using.

'_I knew it, six damn wires at once..._' she thought with something close to admiration, Sakura meanwhile used the short drop in Akikos attention to try to move in close again. Akiko nimbly and easily flipped backwards while letting three of her wires act as a barrier between her and Sakura.

Sakura smiled as she made her longer wire move slightly and connect with the -other- dropped wire, and just as Akiko stopped, the end of that wire jumped up from just a couple of paces away and caught her legs good and solid. With a tiny jerk from Sakura, Akiko toppled over with her legs bound.

"Ack! How did you... Oh crap, you dropped two wires there didn´t you? And I only saw one..."

Sakura smiled nicely "Mmm, you saw me drop the one I let you see me drop. Still wish I could use as many wires as you, you´re definitely best in class with them you know."

Akiko grumbled a bit as she got up "It´s a good skill to have and it suits me great, better than everything else I´ve tried so I finally have at least some chance in a fight, but I´m still really not good enough overall. Now, where were you three the last few days?"

Sakura wasn´t expecting the jump in subject and was a bit too close to starting on the full story for a short moment, then frowned "Sorry Aki-chan, need to know knowledge."

Akiko *hmmed* while looking at the slightly uncomfortable Sakura "So it has nothing what so ever to do with Mizuki suddenly gone then?"

Sakura winced, making Akiko smirk, she sighed "I can´t tell you and you shouldn´t ask too much, I said it was need to know..." Akiko smiled and theatrically winked in reply.

.

Hinata had been paired up against Sasuke and was having a fairly hard time since going full out with either Jyuuken or her own harder version of it was too damaging or simply too dangerous for this kind of practise, so she was relegated to not using chakra strikes, and while she knew a fair lot of regular fighting styles by now, Sasuke was very very good.

And if she could use chakra strikes, Sasuke would never be dumb enough to try to fight her like this anyway. He wasn´t top of the class ranking for nothing. Hinata however wasn´t number three for nothing either.  
That Shikamaru still remained exactly one step above Naruto continued to be a source of constant annoyance for the latter.

So at the moment, Sasuke held the upper hand but still got his fair share of getting hit and thrown around.  
Hinata had chosen to focus on throws to keep Sasuke from making too much use of his advantage, and Sasuke had chosen to follow suit because he knew it was one of his weak points that really needed training.  
Or Lee would keep stomping him completely the moment they started grappling.

Once upon a time, he would simply have used whatever moves needed to simply win with the minimum effort, now he had started realising how stupid that would be, so he was trying to change, to really train when he had the chance, and Hinata had become one of his preferred opponents, although the most preferred was also the most annoying, Naruto had repeatedly shown himself capable of knocking Sasuke over, even if it was more often the other way around, Naruto always seemed to have a surprise to pull. And that was good training. No matter how annoying.

In the middle of getting into a mutual lock as both avoided the others throw Sasuke surprised Hinata by speaking up quietly "So, did you learn anything interesting?"

As they jumped apart "Wh- w- what d-do you mean?"

Sasuke smirked at the obvious reaction and while still keeping his voice down "I overheard ANBU talk to Gai-sensei. So, learn anything good from the scroll?"

Hinata deflated a bit "S-shadow clones."

"Huh... The idiot as well?"

"Hey! And Naruto´s the b-best with them!"

Sasuke frowned "Damn, can´t let him get ahead of me again..."

The day continued far too much in the same way.

.

When they got back home, with Sakura tagging along, Kurenai was not exactly happy hearing that although only Sasuke seemed to actually know what had happened, it was an open secret that something had happened with them involving Mizuki.

Fortunately noone spoke about it elsewhere.

* * *

"Shikamaru! Just the person I wanted." Sakura said cheerfully, causing said boy to grimace a little from where he had thought he would stay unnoticed.

"Sakura, you and the others have been busy lately..."

Sakura frowned a little "Sorry, can´t tell you." she brightened up "But I´d like to practise some genjutsu with you."

"You mean ON me." Shikamaru´s grimace turned distinctly more sour for a moment.

"Well, you´re one of the better ones to resist them and you´re fairly good with genjutsu as well and..."

"Alright..." he sighed as he knew he wouldn´t be getting away easily '_I knew I should have hidden away __better, it´s so tiresome actually succeeding in being lazy..._' the thought caused a mental smirk "But you do NOT practise with that damn -Hellviewing technique-!"

"Promise! I told you I was sorry about that, I wasn´t even trying to hit you with it, you just walked right in front of me when I was practising."

"Yeah, yeah don´t worry I know that, at least you dropped it right away, lets just get started..." '_So we can get finished sooner._'

"Great!"

Not quite audible "Troublesome women..." was followed by a sigh.

"You know what, I think I could make a much nicer version of that technique..."

"You mean so that it only scares me almost to death?" the reply made Sakura blush.

* * *

A week and a few days after the Mizuki event, Kurenai had managed to add a very secure storage in the basement of the house, and in the guise of doing one of his social calls, the Sandaime came personally, justifying to bring a couple of ANBU while the scrolls delivered were kept innocuous and in the background, someone had even taken the time and effort to put them into storage scrolls to keep the bulk down.

The day after that, they spent the whole evening trying to at least categorize the scrolls, with Sakura doing most of the work, Hinata being used to her own clans scrolls being able to recognise a little here or there while Naruto was mostly being a point of optimism and adding the occasional insight thanks to inspired guessing and sometimes seeing things from another perspective. Written stuff was not really his thing.  
They would also go over it with Kurenai as time permitted, but between them they knew surprisingly much already, so they didn´t really expect her to add all that much.

"Well... I think those over there are techniques and I´m fairly sure those ones" Sakura pointed to the next 2 piles "are scrolls about seals, the Uzumaki clan is supposed to specialise in them and there were quite a few among the scrolls left by Naruto´s mother, those" pointing at another set of piles "seem to be regular clan documents, lineages, births, deaths and marriages and so on..."

She looked at 3 large scrolls, rolled up neatly "those however, seem to be all the same sort but I haven´t seen anything like them before so I can´t tell what they might be, those are probably regular exercise scrolls and I think more than half are copies from things written by others or maybe even written by others" pointing at 2 large piles and then looked over to the still largest amount "and those... I just don´t know."

"How much can you read of them Sakura-chan, how many days do you think it will take before you can start reading them?" Naruto asked with a grin. Getting a grimace in return from Sakura.

"Naruto baka! All this is written in shorthand, probably at best clanspecific ones, I can´t read ANY of it, I´m merely looking at the illustrations and how the text is formatted and comparing to other scrolls I´ve seen, it could take many years to decipher the code it´s written in!"

That made Naruto´s face fall so drastically it got a giggle from Hinata. To avoid the glare Naruto sent back she quickly added "H-how w-would it be best t-to go about dec-ciphering them, Sakura-san?"

"Well, the seal scrolls seem to be the most distinct and numerous ones, and seals also have more in common with each other, so the best bet is probably them, second best is probably the clan documents but I think they may be using a simpler shorthand so it´s probably not as good as it might not help decoding the rest, unless Naruto thinks it would be most important to find out about any possible relatives first?"

"If we solve the others, the clan documents will be halfdone but not the other way around?" Sakura nodded "then obviously we try to do the others first, I´ve not known anything about my family for forever before this anyway, I can wait a bit longer now if it gives us a better chance at the other stuff first. We might need those other things." Naruto ended with a slightly grim look as he thought about what had led up to this chance.

Sakura nodded with a slight smile and went on "Problem is however that none of us are really that good with seals, and actually I cant remember any of the jonins or specialists currently in the village that truly specialise in seals either, sure most of them know some, even some very impressive ones, but none have made it their main skill... Kaori is very good with the seals she uses but even she is still far too specialised with the ones that she´s focused on... And she was the best suggestion Kurenai-shishou could come up with when I asked."

She sighed "So the question is, can we find someone that we can trust with this who is also a seal specialist?"

"Wasn´t Tenten-chan doing a lot of things with seals? She does hidden weapons seals like Kaori but I think she went a lot further with other seals as well after sensei started us on it in her classes." Naruto asked, crunching his face together in thought.

"Tenten?"

"T-the girl with the hairbuns and always neat clothes that g-graduated last year but still sometimes come to sensei´s after-school classes. She´s a genin with my c-cousins team now." Hinata said.

Sakura looked up and after a short moment "Oh yes, her, I never got around to talking with her. She took the basic part of the medic training as well, just enough control to qualify but she learned it very well... Very serious about learning."

"You never got around to talking with her because you were too busy moaning after Sasuke!" Naruto said with some glee, getting Sakura to smack him, not too unkindly like she might have done more than a few times in the long past.

"Ow, sorry Sakura-chan" he added with a repentent puppy-eyed face, getting both girls to smile at the silly look.

"So, she´s the closest to a seal specialist anyone can come up with?" Naruto and Hinata looked at each other and then nodded to Sakura "You two have obviously talked to her, so how is she, can she keep a secret?"

Naruto thought for a moment about her, unlike so many others Tenten had from the very beginning mostly been a sort of friendly neutral towards him, neither rejecting nor ignoring him, she had even helped him a few times, maybe she just wasn´t so extrovert or something, more importantly he had never seen or heard of her being even the slightest dishonest, and even her adoptive parents were nice to him. "If we ask her to keep it secret I´m sure she will."

Hinata adding "She´s nice, even though she got teamed up with Neji she still defended me when he was mean and... a-and I think she´s a good person!" softer, she added "And I think she´s my friend..."

Sakura was a bit surprised at Hinata´s strong endorsement but with both of them saying pretty much the same in their own ways, and she had certainly never heard anything bad about the girl either...

* * *

-*Several days later*-

Naruto entered the store of the couple that had adopted Tenten when she was just a year old, one of the few shops Naruto had found he could buy from without trouble or getting overcharged even before being apprenticed, and thank goodness that he had found it, the owners were nice and the store sold a wide variety of both high quality items, less expensive ones for everyday use and even had a section for second hand and bargains.

"Hi old man Takeshi, how´s it going?"

"It was going quite fine until just now, Naruto. Out making the town unsafe again?" was the somewhat grumbled reply from the tall and rather wide man.

"Aaw, you KNOW I haven´t pulled a prank on you for years!" that made the man smile thinly at last.

"So, what can I do for you today then prank boy?"

Naruto gave a big grin at that "Actually today you can´t do anything but I heard Tenten got back home from a mission yesterday and I was hoping to have her help me with something, she is a specialist with hidden weapons after all..." he didn´t like misleading Takeshi but oh well...

"Ok, I´ll go get her, watch the store will you." Naruto stood stunned for a moment while Takeshi disappeared to the inner parts of the house, someone had actually asked him to watch their store for him! Now he would really have to figure out something nice to do for the man, he hadn´t realised Takeshi actually trusted him that much.

He returned with Tenten a few minutes later.

"Hi Naruto, dad said you wanted help with something?"

"It´s something that probably goes along with your weapon style I kinda want to show you and hopefully you can help with it as well."

"Sure I´m free right now, so what is it?"

"It´s back home at sensei´s house, Hinata and Sakura have tried figuring it out but neither of them know enough about it."

"Mmm, ok" she wondered what could be so tricky that both of those girls were stumped, she knew that Sakura was a prodigy with genjutsu and overall knowledge, while Hinata had the advantage of a great clan, and was decently smart. And their first place to ask would have been their sensei, and she certainly had plenty of ability with most things so what could she possibly add...

They went to Kurenai´s house amiably chatting, not really having seen each other outside of classes since Tenten had graduated to a genin team, not exactly being close friends but still enjoying each others company.

.

Being shown into one of the larger, inner rooms in Kurenai´s house she almost startled at seeing the hoard of scrolls, with the 2 other girls once more sitting with several of them trying to figure out something more, anything... They didn´t let it cut into their training time, but their free time had taken a big dip since the scrolls had arrived.

"Hi Hinata-chan nice to see you again, haven´t had a chance to really meet up with you for months! Hello Sakura-san, I don´t think we ever had a chance to talk at the academy." greetings returned from the girls she went on "Naruto, is THIS what you wanted to show me? I heard something about you three raiding the Hokage tower for some scroll but I, this can´t be that can it?"

"Ehehehe, no dont worry, that scroll is back where it belongs, except with better security." Naruto gave a wide grin with the words then continued "No, but thanks to what I found out then, I now have all these, all the scrolls the Hokage had after my parents..."

"Your parents?! Oh that´s wonderful Naruto, who were they?"

"First, Tenten I have to ask you to promise unconditionally not to tell anyone anything about this without asking me first, and if you learn from the scrolls, not to ever use anything of it without first talking about it with Kurenai, ok? Although that´s just as a precaution so you don´t blow yourself up or something."

Tenten blinked at that surprise, wondering what would need such a strict promise, but she was definitely interested now, especially wondering what they needed her for and she could certainly keep secrets if needed!

"Ok, I can promise you that." she said after thinking about it shortly.

"The scrolls were left to me by Uzumaki Kushina originally of Uzushiogakure, and Namikaze Minato..."

'_Minato N... whoah!_' "No wonder you look so much like the Yondaime!" getting over the surprise "Well I always did figure your talk about becoming Hokage wasn´t just bragging." she added with a lopsided smile. That was very well recieved by a now happy and widely smiling Naruto. "So what is it you think I could help you with?"

Naruto´s face went a lot less happy "Mmm well I think you probably need to hear the rest of it as well, the really bad part...".

"Ok..." looking at the others "Sakura-san and Hinata-chan obviously already knows about it so if it´s ok for them, I doubt I´m going to explode in your face about it either?"

"Well, you might... Did you ever think about which day I was born? The day the Kyuubi attacked. It can´t be killed, so dad kinda sealed the Kyuubi into me, or rather half of it, sealing away the other half with himself, forever removing half its power, well hopefully at least."

Tenten was shocked and just stood still, looking somewhat silly for a very long moment then calmly "Naruto, it was the attack of the Kyuubi that probably killed my parents, or at least destroyed any records of who I was, not you. Who knows, I might have been abandoned even before the attack, just as I might have been some great heiress, of course I won´t blame you for something I don´t even know if there´s something to blame anyone for. And the Kyuubi isn´t your fault even if you are containing it." she said ending with a sad smile.

"Oh, just make sure you don´t tell anyone, I´m allowed to tell people myself but noone else is, old man Hokage made that an absolute rule, both for my protection from outsiders but also..."

"Oh... Didn´t work out all that well did it. Don´t worry, I can keep secrets as well as anyone, well, better than most more likely. I´m honored that you trust me with something so dangerous and important. So, what´s it all about then?"

Naruto sighed sadly "My parents didn´t exactly get to prepare before... they died... so all of the scrolls left behind are in code, Sakura thinks it´s probably clan shorthand writing, but it might be a personalised notation systems as well, did I say it right Sakura-chan?"

Sakura nodded and he went on "and we think those scrolls over there, is our best bet to decipher them, or at least the scrolls left by my... mother, we think they´re scrolls on sealing techniques"

That got Tenten´s eyes to widen '_so many...'_ she thought dreamingly "but none of us are any good with seals, and when we thought about it we couldn´t come up with anyone in the village specialising in seals in general, and of course we also wanted someone we could trust, but then I remembered when we trained together once last year and you talked about how you use lots of different seals to store your hidden weapons and that you had branched out and learned a lot of others as part of sensei´s classes, and... well I think you might be the closest the village has to a specialist on sealing techniques in general even if you´re rather new at it overall, and we knew we could trust you."

After a moment of just barely catching his breath "And as long as you don´t use anything without checking with Kurenai first, and that´s only to make sure none of us try to use something we really shouldn´t, I´m fine with you learning as much as you can in return for helping."

That did shock Tenten a bit "Those are your clan secrets! And you´re willing to let me learn any of them if I can." Naruto nodded with a big smile "Oh that is so sweet of you Naruto!" she actually gave him a big hug, overwhelmed as she was.

That her adoptive family had entrusted her with their hidden weapons and sealing techniques had been a true wonder and now she might be able to add even more to that! Ever since she had understood the concept she had yearned to become a strong kunoichi, and she was certain that if she could manage to read and learn from these scrolls, it would improve her greatly, they had after all belonged to the Yondaime and his wife, one of the most expert at sealing techniques that had lived in the village ever...

'_What if the Hiraishin is included and I can learn it?_' she almost jumped at that thought. The almost legendary seal allowing such rapid and precise teleporting that it was highly effective in combat, extremely effective even, together with her own weapon seals it could make for a truly devastating combination.

And maybe now she would have a reason to spend enough time to really make friends with Naruto and Hinata, maybe even Sakura as well, she had never really been good at making friends, always needing a good excuse to approach other people and had always liked how enthusiastic and open Naruto was and the quietly nice Hinata...

Sakura had seemed to have a bad temper before but in the last two years she had become much nicer. That she was taking after Tentens idol Tsunade a lot as well as showing interest in seals was not a bad thing in Tentens eyes either. She thought it would be nice to have someone around with some similar interests.

"Well, I have a few hours free right now so lets start looking at a few scrolls and see if we can figure something out." she said while finding a free place to sit wondering where and how to start.

* * *

Naruto slammed his hand forward and at the end tried to get the small barrier to form, and it did, for a fraction of a second once again before disappearing. He could make it work perfectly fine by using a formulaic version Kurenai had scrounged up for him, but even if he had been as good with hand seals as Sakura, it would still take far too long for it to be useful where he needed it, as part of direct combat.

It was kind of ironic, Naruto was by far the most resilient compared to Sakura and Hinata, but as they had both found ways to improve on that, Sakura using her highend chakra control to make her body tougher and Hinata applying her layer, they might not be able to handle damage actually done like he could, but at the moment he was the one far more likely to actually take damage if someone tried to attack them.

And as Mizuki had shown, that was a real risk, not just something that might happen in the future. He needed something -now-. Well, soon at least.

He hadn´t been able to come up with something to use for defense that suited him, except for this, and he needed it, and so he spent a little time every day to try to make it work, and he was improving, that was obvious, but it annoyed him that it felt like it was taking forever. Even though he was actually progressing quite well regardless who you compared with.

So he tried again. And got an almost identical failure. He did it the formulaic way once and got a neat shield of bluish chakra, big enough to almost cover all of him if he crouched down. At least it had some potential for use, even if slow to activate. Then repeated the previous failure of doing it the quick way. '_I can do it with the shell for the chakrabomb, well enough to keep it together at least, so why not with this?_'

He sat down in the grass, rested his arm on his leg and placed his head in the hand and tried to think it through again. A few minutes later he smiled '_I can do the chakrabomb shell because it´s easier due to being spherical, so it is already partially selfsupporting, so what if I made a bundle of tiny spheres locked together instead?_'

That it -should- be immensly harder to do hundreds of chakra constructs shaped into a single whole instead of just a single large one never entered his mind. Nor did it matter, Naruto was -real good- in doing some things.

A few minutes later, after several tries, he grumbled and frowned as yes he did manage to make a shieldlike barrier appear, except it was barely the size of his own hand and took several seconds to form. '_I have to shape all of them instantly!_'

Several minutes more of tries followed, more grumbling and frowning followed. '_Why can´t I shape the bubbles as quickly as with the chakrabomb? I´m doing it just the same! Except..._' he blinked, then he formed a blueish sphere the size of half a fist with a shining swirl inside it, held it for a few seconds then launched it at a stone a short distance away, he needed to practise this as well anyway. The moment it touched the stone the shell broke apart and the chaotic energy exploded. Not a huge thing but still useful, and by now he had managed to reduce the size needed.

He had watched what he did to make it very carefully this time and the smile returned. '_Yes!_ _The chakra inside is what makes it so much easier to shape!_' he blinked at a surprised thought '_Does that mean I could make the barrier explode if I want it?_' he frowned '_Can´t risk that it explodes towards me, will have to do it like with a mass genjutsu dispel, chakra as purely energy... Should work._'

He focused, slammed his hand forward and managed to get a shield of useful size that stayed a few seconds and didn´t take forever to form, still to slow but much faster than the version relying on hand seals. The way he did it was very wasteful on chakra, but it worked.

Now he just had to make it work long enough so he could test how strong the shield was. And then maybe see if he could make it like with the chakrabomb, with the center filled with twisted, energised chakra '_Huh, of course! If I can make it in two layers, I can make the spheres in the outer layer filled with twisted chakra... Right?_' After a long moment he frowned a bit '_Maaaybe I should talk it over with sensei first... Just in case._' Showing that he really had become a lot more sensible as well.

* * *

A few days later Tenten was back again for the third time, while helping Sakura retrieve the seal scrolls she looked at the three large scrolls that lay by themselves "Sakura-chan, what are those large scrolls?"

"Mmm? Oh those, it´s the ones I couldn´t figure out anything more about except they´re clearly the same type, you want to try having a look at them?" Tenten thought a moment and nodded, she might as well try at least once even if she doubted she would be more successful than Sakura or Kurenai had been, they were a lot more knowledgeable after all, except with seals.

So when sitting down and unrolling them she was surprised to see that she did actually know, or at least strongly suspect, what they were.

"Sakura, I´m surprised you didn´t realise what these are, haven´t you ever seen summoning contracts?"

"What? No I haven´t and how can they be, I mean there´s three of them and they´re so rare!?"

"True, but I got to see one of Kenji´s contract scrolls once..." at Sakura´s uncertain look she clarified "Team 21, 1 year older than me, brawler and great with animals, he´s currently the only known ninja with three active summoning contracts, well known by us at least, some claimed he was the first ever, I guess this proves them wrong since they all seem to have belonged to Kushina."

After a long moment of looking them over again, getting over the excitement "Well, we need to figure out what they summon and if anyone of us can use them."

"Can there be more than one active contract per scroll?" Sakura asked with a thoughtful expression.

"Sure, I don´t know why so few have more than one though, but most of all the one summoning needs to have enough chakra to power it."

"Well, we certainly know someone where that wont be a problem." Sakura stated with a smile and got one in return.

* * *

After yet another session of looking at scrolls while chatting a bit with the three others who were busy with doing some kata´s she vaguely recognised as probably being some more advanced variant of what Kurenai had taught at some of her after class training, Tenten finally thought she may have identified what a couple of scrolls were meant to do.

"I think I know what these two scrolls do now..." instantly getting interest from the others even though they kept to their training.

"So what is it?" came from Sakura while Naruto "Great job Tenten! Is it something cool?"

"This, is a seal that will help healing a specific injury, actually it´s several seals which are placed around the injury and bound together. And this one is similar but instead places a single seal on a person making her heal better and greatly reduces the risk of infections, it seems to be optional wether it´s powered by the person placing the seal or the person it´s placed on, quite useful, even cool." Tenten replied adding a smirk towards Naruto at the end since he was certainly not looking like he thought those were -cool-.

"Oh that really is cool" Sakura said with interest obvious, and a hint of a smirk towards Naruto "how hard is it to figure out how they work, they would be a great addition to the medictraining."

"They´re fairly easy so I think I´ll be able to learn them in the not too distant future at least. Might take longer but they´re very basic and only uses standard signs and hand seals, and I actually understand enough of the notes about it to be sure it´s ok to use." looking up and seeing how late it was "Isn´t it time for your evening training session soon? Guess I should get moving."

"Why don´t you stay and join in instead? Kurenai already told us to make sure you knew you´re welcome."

"Yeah! Come on Tenten, stay and join in, it will be fun!" Naruto was ever the enthusiastic one.

"Oh, she said that? Well I guess I could..."

Later while they were ending the training session, Tenten saw Hinata once again looking... odd, almost a bit shiny. "Hinata, what is it you´re trying to do, I cant make sense of it?"

"Ehm, w-well, I generate a layer of chakra over my skin and then I try to control and change its strength, texture and thickness in different places separately and at the same time."

"Oh, so it´s some kind of advanced chakra control training then? Just maintaining a layer like that is going to be awfully hard!"

"No, already as it is, just the layer, it mitigates a small bit of damage, but if I can learn to control it better it will work as an effective armour, and since I can use the Byakuugan to see attacks coming from almost any direction, as long as I can manipulate the layer fast enough it will be much harder to hurt me. And I´m also trying to learn how to use it to power attacks."

Tenten was practically starstruck with surprise at the complex idea her friend had managed to come up with. And more than a little awed, getting defense and offense out of a single technique, even if it was a tricky one would be an unreachable dream for many.

"That sounds great, I wish I could do it..."

"Well, it´s very tricky and requires a lot of attention, sensei says I can use it only because I seem to be talented with multitasking" '_ah darn_' Tenten thought, but Hinata wasn´t done yet "but I can probably teach you how to do the basic layer and how to strengthen it against damage, even if you do it with the whole layer instead of selectively like I do, it will still harden the layer enough against attacks that it should be worthwhile to know, especially since you have quite a lot of chakra, Sakura and Kurenai are already trying to learn it like that."

"Great!" Tenten liked the sound of that even if it would be far less effective than what Hinata herself was aiming for. "Wasn´t Naruto interested?"

That got Hinata to giggle a bit, almost loosing control over the technique "It needs good control... and you know how Naruto is... It´s not that he couldn´t use it, it´s even very VERY effective for him, but when he tried he almost blazed like a sun and actually managed to really tire himself in barely a few minutes because he had to pour so much chakra out to maintain it. I think it´s the only time I ever saw Naruto really tire from using a chakra-technique."

Tenten laughed a bit at the picture she was told "Well, that certainly explains it."

"I haven´t managed to make it into a formulaic technique yet though so you will have to learn it the hard way."

"That´s ok, I´m fairly good at chakra manipulation anyway."

"Sensei is trying to help me figure out the proper formula of hand seals for it but so far we´re not getting anywhere so if you have any ideas, do tell."

"That tricky? Hmm I guess it´s problematic since it covers your whole body and is continually adaptable all over... I doubt I can figure it out but sure, of course I´ll tell if I come up with something."

* * *

Anko smiled widely and Sakura knew it was bad "You just failed in the first rule of using poisons, never allow it somewhere you´re bound to make it effect yourself."

"What?" Sakura didn´t understand, she had been just as careful as Anko had demanded...

"When you cleaned the blade before you applied the substance, where did it go? A blade used with poison will often have been used with poison before..." Anko almost sing-songed the last part, gleefully.

"...Oh damn..."

"And you just proved why 99 out of 100 people do not use poisons my dear girl!" Anko´s smile widened into a grin "And you´re going to start feeling the effect just about... Now!"

Sakura blinked, nothing happened for several long seconds, then she started itching in far too many places for it to be natural. At least Anko didn´t demand that they used poisons that were truly harmful for practise. Though she knew she would almost be wishing for it to have been at least a sedating one quite shortly. This training substance, which was still very useful even in a real situation, could drive almost -anyone- crazy.

"Ah, off about fifteen seconds there, guess your training to resist poisons have gone well, how about I give you a few minutes to try improving your ability to reduce poison effects even more?"

Sakura was already squirming and with clenched teeth "Antidote, NOW!" although she still did her best to use the combination of her exceptional control and novice medical skill to separate out the weak poison from her body, which did not work well, so instead she tried to interfere with the effect it had on her nerve system.

Anko´s grin reappeared in full width when she saw Sakura get a bit more control back "Ooh impressively fast there girl, noticing that you can´t actually get rid of the effect of this poison by just removing it, the antidote is yours!" and handed over a small vial.

Sakura fervently thanked her luck that the amount of poison she had come into contact with had been minor.

* * *

"Yay!" came Tenten´s cheer late next week, having begun to spend much of her free time in Kurenai´s house one way or another, a little training here, some friendly talk there, and then back to all those oh so very interesting scrolls again and again.

Sakura looked up from the book she was reading while keeping Tenten company and shortly after Naruto and Hinata appeared in the door "You found something great?"

"Actually, yes I did! This" showing them a scroll "shows how to make explosive seals that you can place anywhere."

"Huh, you mean like explosive tags? How is that so great?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, exactly like that, except no matter how many you use you can never run out of these, and even though they require a short time to make, if you have good enough control you can make dozens quite quickly and then make any number of them explode anytime you want, it´s almost like having an endless supply of tags except you can control when these explode with perfect precision, not to forget that the power of these can also be adjusted quite a bit. They can also be combined to create directional explosions and linked to cause chain reactions."

"Oh, ok that IS pretty neat I guess."

"Actually, if I could figure out how to remove the link to whoever made them and add a conventional trigger, they might also work like regular exploding tags... Would be nice being able to make your own. Would be great for dad´s store..."

* * *

"Now that we are all here..." the hokage pointedly looked at Kakashi, he had at least almost been on time for this meeting but the Sandaime had made a routine of trying to get him to improve. Kakashi looked like he was trying to whistle innocently and doing not such a great job of it.

"We have received the first message outside of the usual official things from the new mizukage-" that got the attention of Kurenai and Kakashi, the other two present "-and I am quite happy that I choose to take the advice you and Yuugao provided, even if you did go beyond your authority at the time." he looked over at Kurenai at the end, a tiny hint of reproach noticeable for a bare moment.

"Well, she was actively avoiding doing anything detrimental to us and as I said to you then, the former mizukage was for lack of a better description utterly insane and needed to be removed. Terumi impressed both me and Yuugao at the time and I can´t say she stopped impressing me since."

The hokage smiled slightly, it was not common to hear anything close to admiration from Kurenai after all "Take a look at what she writes." he handed over the message.

"So, what was it you wanted me for then sir?" Kakashi asked.

"Currently I need Kurenai to remain in the village, Yuugao is unfortunately already on a mission, and if I can´t send someone she already knows, I can at least send someone as senior as possible."

Kakashi´s visible eye showed clear surprise "You´re sending me as a diplomat?" the Sandaime nodded and then turned back over to Kurenai who looked up after finishing reading the fairly short message.

"So, what do you think?"

"Mmm, she openly aknowledges that her rebellion was much assisted by our active non-interference and essentially says that she owes us a big favour, that while any form of alliance is out of the question Kiri will be outspokenly neutral in favour of Konoha unless there´s good reason otherwise, the usual kind of politics, and a strong desire and aim to get Kiri-nins to behave, more -civilised- again... And hints about how diplomatic contact at a high level might be advantageous to both of us? That´s why you´re sending Kakashi then?"

"Correct on both accounts, and I´m happy to hear that your interpretation was the same as my own, it can be difficult when messages have to keep as much as possible hidden and at least you have spoken to her in person." he turned his gaze over to Kakashi "You leave next week."

* * *

About a week later, Tenten once again drew attention to her with "Now this looks interesting... A set of seals to store away a little of your chakra to give you some reserves."

Seeing her continue to read and then blush slightly made sure the others attention was locked on her.

"Sounds good, so how does it work?" Naruto asked as he walked over to look.

"Ah, sorry Naruto you can´t use this." a slightly flustered Tenten said while not quite avoiding to let him look.

"Aaw, you don´t know that until I try it!"

"No Naruto, I mean you simply can´t use it, it´s a physical impossibility, though there seems to be another version of it as well that you should be able to use."

"Huh, what´cha mean impossible?"

"I mean that the central seal that stores the chakra makes use of a part of the body that you don´t have." Tenten said with a hint of blush returning and unconsiously moving her hand.

"Eh? Of course I do, why shouldn´t I have it, I mean as far as I know I´m not missing any pieces?"

A sound vaguely resembling "gack" could be heard from where Hinata was getting steadily more red from blushing and Sakura was having a hard time not giggling, both having caught on by the time of Tentens gesture.

Tenten looked over at him "Naruto, you´re not a woman are you?" that got him to blink in surprised silence "the central seal that manages the chakra stores it in the womb which allows the seal itself to be used mostly for regulating, making it all more effective, the simpler version can store a smaller amount in the central seal itself. I can make a copy of that part for you, the s-scroll is really much too g-graphical I think."

"Ah... ehehehe, I see, I expect that might be a bit hard, well then I guess it´s lucky anyway that it´s just me that can´t use it. You girls CAN use it then." saying that while ending up looking at Hinata, she just softly and quietly fainted. Getting used to talking more openly and about more varied things, even presumably -girl talk- with Sakura and Tenten, Hinata was still more than a little bit too shy for her own good.

"Oi! Hinata!"

"Baka Naruto!" Sakura said while moving over to her and holding her hand up to stop Naruto from jumping over "Why don´t you and Tenten get started on copying your part of that scroll, outside, while I take care of Hinata ok?"

"Come on Naruto, let Sakura handle this." Tenten didn´t quite have to drag Naruto out but almost, and he certainly didn´t get why she seemed on the verge of giggling at him.

After placing a pillow under Hinata´s head, Sakura went and got a mug of water, sat down and put a little water on Hinata´s cheeks and forehead, the wet and cool very soon got a reaction as Hinata woke up again with a slight start.

"Easy..." Sakura said as she held her from sitting up too quickly and putting the other hand on her shoulder in a calming gesture "the discussion got a bit too heated for you there it seems." she added with a smile getting a slightly strained smile in return.

"I´ve... I m-mean it was just m-me and Hanabi for so very long and..."

"And you´re barely got used to talking at all even after all this time outside of the clan, just giving or more often taking orders" she got a little nod in response to that "and very much not used to being looked at as a girl, and especially not by Naruto... He´s really special to you isn´t he?"

Hinata gave a quick nod at that "M-my first and best f-friend and..."

"And perhaps a bit more than that?"

"P-perhaps... I... I don´t know." came the quiet answer.

"Well then, to begin with we really have to come up with a way to get you over the worst of your shyness dont we?" getting an asking look from Hinata "You´re really not used to being close to people are you...? Well that I think I can take care off." Sakura leaned over and gave Hinata a big hug, getting a tiny squeak and blush in return.

"See, nothing but good." Sakura smiled and then "Oh by the way..." then gave her another, big long hug "And that was for that time you stepped in and stopped me and Ino from getting completely insane, it feels so odd remembering now, how silly that fight was and yet I almost exploded completely at her at the time."

"I-I just didn´t want two such good friends fighting, I almost didn´t dare but t-then I thought I didn´t want you two to stop being friends so I had to do something..."

"Because until Naruto you didn´t really have any of your own..." Hinata gave a hint of a nod.

"Well Hinata, you are also my friend now, and never forget it!" Sakura said and gave her another little hug, getting a smile in return, this time with only a slight blush added. "How about next time I meet up with Ino, you come along!"

"I-I couldn´t intrude o-on your time together w-when you spend so much with us already."

"Nonsense, Ino enjoys your company as well!" that might have been a slight exaggeration, but Sakura was certain it -would- be true once Ino really got to know Hinata.

* * *

AN:

Poor Sakura, getting a clone based on her inner self´s personality but completely void of the moderating influence of being part of the whole her.

Next chapter, that started out as the second half of this, is currently at 4k words but has some growing to do, hopefully it wont take nearly as long as this chapter did but I´m still not giving any promises considering how much trouble a few small parts of this chapter gave me.

RedEye00: Yeah it was kinda needed, even if they´re way more competent now than in canon, there would be no other adults interfering this time. Hope you will like what´s coming.

serialkeller: Good to hear you like it so far. Whew, that´s a big review!  
And well, I couldn´t let Naruto loose on the world without his trademark skill now could I? I will not however accept the extreme fanon improvements that has been given to the shadow clones. If they really did work like such a free lunch, literally everybody would already be using them all the time. I actually moved up and extended my own little exposition on the subject to this chapter just for your benefit. ;) I was planning for it to be in one of the next two chapters, but now I think it was better here anyway. I think I keep the shadowclone mostly inline with canon even.

And don´t worry about smart, Naruto is already a good deal brighter and more knowledgeable than at the point canon starts (even just living with people that care and are happy to talk with you and teach you if you ask will do a LOT for that), but with Hinata and Sakura around so much, he prefers to help them from the sideline when it comes to theoretical stuff and learn by watching rather than just randomly trying to guess by himself. He´s a practical person and even though much better with theory than in canon, it´s still not what he likes or is good at.

Naruto just doesn´t have the personality to be a seal master (at least not for the foreseeable future), either in canon or in my version, that doesn´t mean he wont be involved with them or wont learn, he´s already started to learn. He´s quite happy for the moment leaving most of that dreary stuff that is part of seals for Tenten and Sakura.

Having not been raised as an Uzumaki, and with seals being more of a theoretical, learned skill, there´s not all that much room for talent to show, but it´s still there and will show eventually. And when it does it will be coloured by Naruto´s number one trait, unpredictable. That´s off in the future however, or maybe not... ;)

And in regards to Minato, don´t forget what other skill he had... And the Hiraishin and Rasengan, well, who knows when such might appear or who learns it... ^_^  
Kinda funny you mentioned it just now though, considering the part where it´s mentioned in this chapter is well over half a year old.

Mastering an element before chunin exams, he simply doesn´t have time for that, it´s something that can take many years even for the talented, but he´s working on it and he will certainly have some level of skill with it at that point.

A weapon for Naruto? I didn´t set him up to use a speedbased martial arts style just to slow him down again with a big clunky weapon. He wont need one anytime soon if ever.

And concerning couples and all, just the other day I finished off the first hint of a tiny harem, not involving Naruto or Hinata however, but that wont happen for quite a while yet. And then there´s -him-, and -her- getting together in such an interesting way, can´t say I´ve ever seen this couple elsewhere either... And oh dear, the ramifications it might cause! ;)

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions. While I already have outlines for a lot of this, a good suggestion might still get included, only a few things are completely set in stone.


	14. Diplomacy and annoyances

Definitely getting harder to keep the story properly glued together as it comes along, but hey, still less than 3 weeks since last chapter, not bad. Not satisfied with some parts, but no good alternatives for how to tell it, so better with an ok chapter now than a good one in a few months.

A little bonus to readers at the end, a simple and useful ninjutsu from our own reality.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

* * *

Diplomacy and Annoyances

* * *

In Kirigakure

Kakashi had found himself pleasantly impressed by the new Mizukage, Mei Terumi, stern and a bit harsh perhaps but she clearly cared for Kiri as much as his own kage cared for Konoha, and quite competent. Very nice to look at never hurt either.

"I do not like leaving debts unpaid, but in this case it will have to be limited to a statement of non-aggression outside of missions."

Kakashi gave a hint of a nod "Having even a partially nonhostile Kiri is a vast improvement, Konoha and the Hokage will be most happy about this regardless if anything more outspoken or formal comes from it."

"Good." she paused for a moment "Now then, I have some, -information- that you may find interesting..."

Kakashi gave a nod and wondered with increasing interest what it was he had been sent here to be told about.

"First of all then, while we were based in Konoha we had a few run-ins with your runaway, Orochimaru, and some of his flunkies,-"

Kakashi perked up visibly at this "-and we became fairly certain that he is based somewhere between the northeast of Konoha and the edge of Kumo, or most likely, in Oto."

"Mmm, using the turmoil as that country recreated itself, that sounds quite like him indeed..." she nodded in reply to his guess, it was the same as her own even if she had some suspicion that Orochimaru may actually have created the turmoil rather than just exploit it.

"Secondly, during the, -deposing- of Yagura, the yondaime mizukage, we found something quite worrying, you know he was a jinchuuriki? Well, we found, -evidence- of him having been controlled by someone else for a long time, and investigation showed that that someone was an Uchiha."

Kakashi startled at that, certainly not what he had been expecting "It couldn´t be...?"

"No, this clearly started while Uchiha Itachi was just a small child so it was not him, and I only know of one other Uchiha still around when Yagura died, still under someones control, and he was not even born at the time it began."

Kakashi had a long moment of inner turmoil, the hokage had given him complete freedom of choice for this mission, on the one hand he was certain that telling the woman in front of him what he wanted would not be a problem, on the other hand, telling the mizukage something that only a halfdozen in Konoha knew of, it felt oh so wrong.

Seeing Kakashi´s hesitation "Anbu, I have some matters to discuss with Kakashi-san that requires complete discretion, all of you will leave and secure these rooms from the outside."

A shadow in a corner morphed into a masked ANBU that quickly bowed "Yes Mizukage-sama. You know how to call on us."

Before he had moved she continued "This will take at least a few hours, anyone bothering me or listening in in the meantime, I will use for target practise with lava, that goes for you as well Ao." the latter bowed politely and left with the ANBU.

Kakashi was somewhat surprised but also relieved at how neatly she had handled it, it would now seem as if it was she who initiated some exchange "Well, that makes my choice a bit easier at least, but hours?"

Mei gave a slight lopsided smile as she visibly relaxed a bit "I could use a few hours of vacation, the place is still a mess even if things are at least back to working again most of the time. Now, what was it you were thinking about?"

"Ehm, actually I also have two things to add... The first should not be told to anyone-" he looked closely at her reaction and deemed that his earlier impression had been correct, she would not try to use it, if they were on opposing sides of a mission she would probably gleefully stab him in the back if he was dumb enough to present the opportunity, but her honor would not allow her to use this against him or his.

"-... We have recently found evidence claiming that Uchiha Itachi was under the impression that he was acting on the Hokages direct orders when he killed off the clan."

For the first time during their talk, he saw her eyebrows go up in obvious astonishment.

"And he was part of Anbu at the time... Infiltration or treachery at that level..." she shook her head with a wince.

"You know of the organisation he is now part of?"

"Yes, Yagura made frequent use of their services, since he got too many Kiri-nins killed to fulfill all contracts normally, and no I have not met Itachi. We are still considering if we can avoid using them again. It may take some time before we truly have a choice..."

"Well, if you ever get the chance to meet him, tell him... Tell him that ka-san says the old man gave no such order."

"Heh, will he even understand that? Your second item?"

"He should realise what it means. And secondly, an old story that in Konoha is almost an official secret, but never the less now seems far more relevant and important than it used to. You know of Uchiha Madara?"

"Of course, few shinobi does not."

"A man calling himself, and both looking and acting quite like Madara was the one that caused the Kyuubi to break loose 13 years ago, it seems he was trying to force it to become his fully controlled summon."

Kakashi got to see something few had ever seen, Mei Terumi, the Godaime mizukage with her mouth hanging open in shock "He tried to make it his -summon-?.!" she said disbelievingly "I mean I knew the Sharingan can let you control or at least affect tailed beasts, but to make it a controlled summon... Even the idea is outrageous. I assume the attack on the village was the result of this Madara failing rather than being successful?"

"As far as we know, yes."

"I see why you told me, this man almost have to be the one controlling Yagura..."

"And if he is active not just in Konoha, and with another tailed beast, it´s impossible to say where his ambitions end."

"Quite so... You have my gratitude for trusting me with these secrets, I assure they will remain unknown to others, but it will allow me to take precautions at least." she took a moment to shake off the surprises and then with a hint of cheer "Well then, now that we have the work done how about you join me for my very short vacation and the lazy dinner I was planning to spend an hour of it on?"

She motioned to the back room of the office and after a moment´s hesitation at her change of attitude, Kakashi gave a hint of a bow and motioned her to go first, she gave a hint of a crooked smile and proceeded.

* * *

"Ok, I think I´ve figured out most of another one." Tenten said "It´s a seal applied on a wound which somehow holds the wound from worsening or changing almost completely until the seal is removed or too much time passes. Part of it was much like one of the healing seals, so that helped a lot. It´s kind of a strange seal though, I think it may actually be warping time to work."

"Neat, but I guess that´s what we should expect from the wife of someone who got famous for his ability to teleport in combat. Any luck on learning the code itself?" Sakura asked, getting a slow headshake in reply.

"I think I know why it´s been so impossible to break though..." suddenly Tenten also had the attention of Naruto and Hinata who had been doing some of their own personal exercises on the other side of the room "we´re having trouble with it because it´s not really a code or shorthand..."

"What?" Sakura was obviously lost...

"I think Naruto´s mother started with her regular basic clan shorthand, but then more and more developed her own personalised notation system from it, that´s why your attempts at correlating the signs isn´t working like it should..."

Sakura groaned and cut Tenten off "Because I´m not looking at scrolls closely enough chronologically, we picked scrolls based on being similar in subject, not what their apparent time of writing or writing style is, if we even -can- figure that out -ever-..."

She put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands while producing another, longer and louder groan "damn, damn, DAMN! I really really wanted to be able to read all of these, it´s great being able to work out what they´re for, even if dreadfully slowly, and the raw basics on how to perform them, but all these notes, there are huge amounts of additional information on every single technique! And we wont be able to even begin understanding them fully for years to come wont we?" she turned her head to Tenten who shook her head sadly in agreement.

Tenten made a few notes on a piece of paper, attached it to the scroll and then picked one of the technique scrolls after Kushina she had gone over shortly before...

"Take a look at this, especially those illustrations on the lower left, I remember what you said about how that chakra rope technique was so problematic..."

Sakura looked and "Are those chakra chains? Damned, this is one of all those scrolls we haven´t even been able to figure out the hand seals for. It even seems to have several variants, blasted I want to know how it works. And it´s just too dangerous to try and experiment with turning the rope technique into chains."

"Well, sooner or later." Tenten smiled and eventually got a smile back from Sakura.

"Anyway, I´ve gone through the scroll for the chakra reserves seals, and I´m just about certain it has no warnings on it, and I´ve gone over it with Kurenai and it seem´s to be all ok and safe. So, I´m going to see if I can apply it on myself tomorrow, maybe you could help, from the looks of it, it would be quite impossible to do it alone? Then I have training with Lee and Neji so I´ll be back here the day after, in time for your evening trainingsession, I´ll let you know how well it works then ok..."

"Oh, sure I´ll help!" Sakura was quite happy to offer, she had found the seals interesting and it felt like Tenten was becoming another friend. Sakura still recalled the time before Ino became her friend far too well to consider that as anything but important.

* * *

Neji had already started some light training with Byakuugan fully active so he noticed Tenten approaching long before she would arrive. '_hmm, she looks... -brighter- than normal?_' he thought wonderingly, Tenten wasn´t quite a true powerhouse with chakra but she still already had enough to compete with some of the more powerful chuunins, even some jonins, but what he could see so far just looked, odd.

As she came closer however he got the impression of a few additional chakra connections that confused him, but above all else the thing that was now obvious was that she seemed to be... generating? a lump of chakra at one of her mid lower primary chakra points... Why would she be doing that? He knew he had seen something vaguely similar before but he couldn´t quite recall... what... It almost looked like...

"Tenten are you pregnant?" he blurted out with uncharacteristic bluntness as she got close.

"WHAT?! What kind of a question is that to ask a girl all of a sudden! I´m 14 and an active duty ninja, of course I´m not! What ever gave you such an idiotic idea! And we´re even on the same team, you should damn well know I´m not even dating anyone!"

"Sorry Tenten, it´s just that...eh, you have a... bunch of chakra in your lower torso and the closest thing to that that I´ve seen before was in a pregnant woman..."

That made things click in Tenten´s mind, making her grimace as she stopped "Oh it´s that visible, I´m trying out a chakra reserve seal. It draws a tiny amount of your chakra from all over your body and channels it into the central seal which stores it and lets you control it´s release."

"But the energy isn´t in the seal, it´s..."

She cut him off "Are you going to be as annoying about this as Naruto? Yes it´s a seal that only women can use, guess once why, and if you´re going to start looking at it too much with your peek-through vision I´ll clobber you! Damned I didn´t think it would be that obvious," adding the last in an annoyed but quiet tone while internally adding a note to herself to see if she could find a way to hide it better, or at least camouflage it a little.

Neji was instantly apologetic "My apologies for angering you Tenten, I was just surprised because I haven´t seen anything just like it before, how did you manage to learn it?"

"Sorry Neji, that will have to remain unsaid, I promised I would tell noone whose clan secrets it is."

'_Clan secrets? Naruto was apparently been around when she was learning it, and she has been seeing him and the girls over at Kurenai´s house a lot lately, so who could it belong to?'_

He knew or at least knew OF probably all Hyuuga clan secrets at least to some degree, and this didn´t seem like anything he had ever heard of. Obviously it wasn´t part of the knowledge Tenten had been given by her adoptive family, there would be no reason to suddenly keep that secret.

Naruto was an orphan and as far as Neji knew, with no living relatives in the village for many years, although might there have been some distant relative that had left something...?

_'The Haruno girl?' _The Haruno family was reasonably wellknown in the shinobi world, but they were not numerous enough to even be considered a small clan and neither really famous nor infamous, merely a reputation for often being good with genjutsu even if he vaguely recalled Sakura´s mother instead working as a codebreaker rather than a field shinobi, and also having a bit too much of a temperament at times..._ 'mmm something else as well, oh yes, highly resistant to mind influencing techniques was something he had heard mentioned about them as well...' _

And of course their trademark pink hair that seemed to prevail through generations, but nothing ever hinted of them having such unusual clan scrolls.

_'It couldn´t be that that Kurenai-woman was the source? She had developed exceptionally well yes, but anyone who had met her or knew about her also knew very well exactly how much she worked to reach this point of skill, and if she had developed it, why did Tenten use it first..._'

Then he frowned and spoke up again "But what if..." he trailed off slightly embarassed even though he shouldn´t be. But having just annoyed his teammate by his own fault he felt a bit more cautious than usual.

Tenten rolled her eyes very theatrically "Then I guess I would have the joy of having an exceptionally healthy child."

"Huh, wha-" Neji froze for a moment as he realised what she meant "oh... you mean... OH! That is actually impressive, you get a double win from it then."

"Actually it´s more like a double double win, it helps improve both chakra generation and control as well, even if it´s just minimally."

Neji nodded thoughtfully while thinking about the potential clue she had unwittingly provided him with '_I bet it would also raise the probability of having a child with a lot of chakra even before training... Interesting. So perhaps someone does know who Naruto´s parents were then?_'

He also showed a remarkable degree of sense of selfpreservation by not mentioning that even in an inactive state, Byakuugan eyes were already -peek-through- to some small extent, especially in regards to things with little mass or thickness, like a few layers of clothes. There was more than one good reason for a Hyuuga to learn not to be too easily excitable. And to be polite.

* * *

Arriving at Kurenai´s house next evening Tenten was still slightly annoyed at Neji´s question the previous day.

Joining the others out back, Kurenai welcomed her then with some mirth continued "So Tenten, what has your knickers in a twist today then?"

"Well, I found out one downside in using the chakra reserve seal around people with skilled chakra detection or with the Byakuugan..."

"Oh, why would that be?" Kurenai asked back, as she was also considering making use of the seal, it would probably be rather useful for just about anyone and no matter how she had looked there seemed to be no downsides at all to it.

"I had barely arrived to the training area, when Neji asked me if I was pregnant!" Tenten said with a good deal of not quite anger mixed in.

The responses were mixed, Kurenai got a good chuckle from it, Naruto basically went "Huh?" followed by an amused grin when he caught on, while Sakura first tried to restrain herself but soon laughed openly.

The unexpected reaction came from Hinata though, she stood almost looking dumbstruck for a moment before "Neji said that? Stuck up and etiquette proper -Neji- asked YOU that!" and then utterly bubbled with laughter for a long time.

Tenten went *hmph* with a sour face. '_Oh well if it got that much of a laughter out of the usually so introvert Hinata then I guess it was well worth it at least._'

Once Hinata wasn´t laughing incoherently Tenten went on "I also think I found an upside with the seal, I´m fairly sure it helps slightly with chakra control." that quickly got Naruto´s attention.

"How?"

"I think that´s what one of the notes for it is about, after having tried it... Mmm, well if you think about it as a flow, if you try to push too much at once you cause uneveness and whirls in the flow, and most people have slightly more chakra than their bodies handle easily, so with this you shave away the excess, getting a calmer flow, yet you don´t remove so much that the body stops developing it´s paths while the little you draw also stimulates chakra generation. If I´m right then it actually helps both generation and control. And those are just the sideeffects!"

* * *

"Aaww, sourface again?"

Kurenai raised her eyebrows at Naruto in reply.

"Oh alright she isn´t -that- bad, but does she have to look so angry all the time? And it´s not like we can´t handle being on our own for a few days."

Kurenai rolled her eyes "And the last time you were?"

Naruto thought for a moment to recall when that was and... '_Oh right, Mizuki..._' "Ehehehm..."

"Did you ever even bother trying to talk with her, you know Hinata likes Yurika even though they´ve only met twice."

Naruto knew when he was loosing "Ah, not really no, I just kinda don´t know what to talk about with her, her angry face gets in the way you know." Kurenai chuckled slightly at the description.

"Well you could ask her to help you set up another shogi-tournament, she´s annoyingly good at it you know, might be able to defeat Shikamaru and should certainly give any others some serious competition."

"Huh, I would never have guessed..." while Shikamaru had got a few losses, it was too often an issue of being lazy, someone giving him a real challenge would be interesting to see. And while the last -tournament- Naruto had set up had been excessively messy, it had also been great fun...

"And then you could ask her to give you some tips on your wind element practise, she´s one of the relatively few in Konoha with it you know, which is somewhat ironic since she´s not a combat shinobi, which is where wind is most useful."

"She´s a wind user?" Naruto´s shriek was fortunately just mentally, otherwise it would likely have been deafening, any kind of help with the troublesome wind element practise would be invaluable, and here he had missed the opportunity for months just because of getting scared off by an angry face... *ack*

"Mm, she is indeed. I´ll be leaving early tomorrow and should be back in three or four days, ok?"

Naruto nodded while thinking.

* * *

Naruto was rather annoyed, he had gone through a whole list of things to train while using kagebunshin to help him improve faster... And the results were not as great as he had wished for. Sure he did get a little extra much of the time, but too often it was minimal.

Practising fighting against his own clones did work somewhat decently, the clones didn´t improve his skill directly, but by seeing what he did, what worked and what failed from additional viewpoints, that was still a very valuable addition.

His first attempt, trying to have a half dozen clones simply work out with the training itself, it had not been completely useless, but almost, it had however at least shown him that if he wanted to come up with a new or modified move, using kagebunshin like this would work -very- well, as long as he could make enough of them and keep them around for long enough.

His personality fortunately worked to his advantage here, while many clones would try the same things, as long as he used many, he usually got enough clones or groups of clones trying different things for it to be plenty worthwhile.

While he could create hundreds of clones without too much strain, if he wanted to keep them active for any real time, the limit suddenly dropped down drastically, half a dozen he could keep going for a whole day, a dozen he could keep around for a whole day if he pushed, but then the amount of Kyuubi chakra that would mix in would start getting dangerously prominent, and he found himself straining as much to keep himself under control as with keeping the clones active.

And then there was the training for his wind affinity, the clones would definitely cut down on how long it would take for him to reach an acceptable level when it came to figuring out how to do different things and interacting with the element, but unfortunately, achieving acceptable and actual -control- over his primary element, the clones gave almost no help with that part.

* * *

At the sound of voices getting increasingly loud and insistent, Kurenai went to check, she came to the window just in time to see Hinata apparently breaking up an argument between Naruto and Sakura. Unusually, Naruto was the one who looked most angry.

After making sure there was no continuing problem she went back to her own work for the moment, preparing for a short and most likely simple delivery mission. The only reason for a highend jonin to do it being a matter of formality.

Sakura was slowly but surely growing into the role of team leader that Kurenai was aiming for her, but finding that Hinata was actually taking on the role of an effective peacemaker was a very nice surprise, she knew the girl was the type to be such but lack of confidence had prevented it and Kurenai had hoped for it but not expected it for a long time, if ever.

.

Not long after she was surprised again when the three youngsters came back inside and after going over some academy assignment, saw Sakura off for the evening. The surprise came from the fact that Sakura and Naruto did not display even a hint of resentment at each other, it was as if whatever the argument had been about had never happened. In fact, all three seemed happier than usual rather than anything else.

Kurenai was puzzled, she had to have missed something but she couldn´t come up with any plausible explanation no matter how she tried. The normal way of events would have been some edginess, maybe some glaring or chill for perhaps an hour and then a gradual shift to normal. Naruto would always be much quicker to either forgive, forget or both depending on what the issue had been, he didn´t hold a grudge but even he could not completely ignore arguments.

Something that by itself she was happy about, he had been dangerously close to just suppressing any bad emotions, that had taken some time to realise since he was distressingly good at it, and while his generally positive view of things was genuine, simply rejecting the negatives was not healthy.

Kurenai made a mental note of finding out what the heck that had been about. And because it was a very busy day, promptly forgot about it minutes later when she had to divert a minor disaster in the making, Naruto experimenting in the kitchen. He was decent in the kitchen overall, but the times he let his creativity take over too much, odd and messy things tended to happen.

* * *

"Oh, hi again Sakura, I thought you went home with Tenten?"

"Not tonight Naruto. Did you come up with a good answer for what to use for ranged combat, I mean besides fuuton?"

Naruto frowned a bit "Well I do have the Uzumaki Bakuhatsu, although it´s rather wasteful on chakra, and I´m loading up bigtime on the number of kunai I carry, really wish I was as accurate at throwing as Tenten..."

Sakura smiled and shook her head a little "Baka, you know how much she has practised to get that good. Anyway, since you seemed to do so well with the Kagebunshin, I talked with Kurenai about the Kagebunshin shuriken jutsu-"

Naruto brightened up "That sounds cool! What is it, tell me!"

"I was about to tell you. It´s similar to the usual kagebunshin except it creates shuriken out of chakra that you can launch through the jutsu instead of having to throw them so that should let you be a lot more accurate, -however-" she emphasised strongly to be certain Naruto was really listening "-it has the same dangers except worse, because you´re not creating a copy of yourself you don´t notice how much chakra you use right away, so you have to promise to be careful with it ok?"

Naruto nodded slowly, he had seen how tired Hinata had been after testing how many and for how long she could sustain shadow clones "Ok, extra careful not to fire off too many in too short time, right?"

"Exactly, and be careful when you practise, don´t do it without someone nearby until you manage what the scroll considers proficiency." she ended by handing over said scroll.

"Great! Thanks Sakura. But where did you get it from? Wait, you already know it do you?"

She smiled as she replied "It´s from the restricted scroll, it´s one of the first I memorised because it looked so good, except even with how much my chakra level has improved, I still have to be too careful with it for it to be as good as it could be, for you it should do quite well since you´re much better with ninjutsu than with throwing and have, what, 4 times my chakra or something, even without drawing on fluffy."

Naruto doubleblinked "Fluffy? -FLUFFY-?" he asked incredulously.

"You´re always giving silly nicknames, thought I should beat you to it just for once at least."

"Heh... Actually I think I kinda like it. Wanna bet on wether fluffy likes it?" Naruto grinned.

"Hehe... Nope, but I also came up with it so it wont be obvious to anyone overhearing what we´re talking about, ok?"

* * *

Hearing a knock on the door, Naruto went and opened, cheerfully "Hi Kitsune-chan!" at the admonishing look he got in return "eheehe, sorry I mean hello Kaori-chan... ehm, Kurenai-sensei isn´t home right now but why don´t you come in while you wait?"

"Hello Naruto-kun and yes I know she´s not home she told me she would be back shortly, and what makes you think it was her I was going to meet? My main reason today is to meet you and the girls, Kurenai said you would all be here now, and that´s also why I brought one of my genin with me."

Standing aside slightly she not quite pulled with her the tall youth with a tiny and sharply cut moustache, eyebrows and beard and his black hair held back, making his sunglasses look very prominent on his face, the sharp contrasts making him look impressive. And possibly, very possibly, a bit like a thug of the more stylish sort.

Seemingly managing to be both very confident and at the same time a bit shy and nervous the youth stepped up to Naruto, bowed neatly "Pleased to meet you Naruto-san, my name is Meioh Kenji. Kaori-sensei tells me you needed to find out more about summoning contracts... well I´m probably as much of an expert as you can find in Konoha right now."

Naruto had been surprised by the politeness and the undertone of kindness in his voice when he connected the name "Oh! Great, you´re the guy Tenten mentioned with three active summon contracts! Hey, that´s really cool you know. Nice to meet you... uh you know this stuff is kinda secret?"

"That´s not a problem, I´m used to keeping secrets. My clan isn´t big but we tend to get rather good with certain skills that is probably better to keep out of general circulation."

Instantly interested "What kind of skills?"

"Space and time manipulation techniques. My skill with summoning is part of that, although that seems to be most of what I´ve inherited, my 3 year younger sister is already better at the other things the Meioh clan tends to specialise in."

"Ooh, that´s really cool. Oh right, Saeko is your little sister?" Naruto got a nod in reply.

With further small talk, Naruto very much interested and admiring (not to mention happy about a completely new aquintance not being the slightest negative at him) towards Kenji who mostly seemed somewhat embarassed at the attention, they moved on inside, Naruto being very simple and straightforward and just brought them directly to the room they used to go through his collection of scrolls, Kaori already more or less knew all or much of it and he had already decided that Kenji could be utterly relied upon.

Sakura´s reaction wasn´t unexpected considering how they had kept this away from nearly everyone else "Naruto! What are you... Oh, Kaori-san I didn´t see it was you at first..." she sighed when seeing someone else follow "I guess Naruto has suddenly decided to let more people in here."

"ehm, sorry for surprising you Sakura-chan, this is Kenji, Meioh Kenji, you know the genin Tenten mentioned who has three summoning contracts, he´s here to help with ours."

Introductions were made, Tenten already knew him, being something of a friend to his teammates but Hinata and Sakura were pretty much unknowns and vice versa.

After just a few minutes of mostly greetings and getting something to drink, Kurenai arrived.

Once they had settled down, Kenji asked "So, what is it you want to know about summons and summoning contracts?"

"Mm... Is there any limit to how many can use a single contract?" Sakura had tried to make a list of questions they needed answers for, but it was still of the somewhat hazy kind.

"No, but most are not used by several people because few will trust others than themselves to keep it. When you sign a contract you essentially create a permanent bloodseal, and if someone gets their hands on the contract and can figure out which is which, they can do all sorts of nasty stuff with it. So, most summoners keep the contracts hidden either in a safe location or on themself."

"Is there only a single contract for a single kind of summon?"

"There can be more than one but many is rare and several is not common, I´m not quite sure why but there seems to be some sort of limit, not on the number of contracts but rather on the process of creating new ones. Or at least that´s how I´ve interpreted what my own summons have said. They´re usually not entirely forthcoming with information." he thought for a moment then seemed to make a decision "Let me guess, it seems you´ve finally been given your inheritance Naruto-kun?"

"... You... know who I am already?" Naruto was dumbstruck, the others not all that far from it.

"Because I inherited two summoning scrolls, one each from my mother and father, one of the first things I asked my first summon was specifically if there would be any problem about using more than one contract. That´s when I got to hear about how this town had already once had someone with three contracts, who her husband was, who her son was and how the Hokage had hidden away their scrolls, including the contracts, after they died in the mess with the Kyuubi. Just remember that there is ONE limit on how many contracts you can use, and that is how much chakra you have."

With Naruto temporarily lacking ability for speech, Sakura instead asked "Why would the chakralevel matter, I thought it was only a matter of having enough for when you try to summon something?"

Kenji smiled "That would make it a rather onesided contract don´t you think? The deal is that you give a tiny draw of chakra through the contract seal, ALL the time, and in return you get the ability to try to summon them. Some summons are very nice and friendly, willing to help even far beyond what they need, others can be prickly and stingy about it and just barely do the absolute minimum required for them to keep the contract active. And, there´s never any guarantee that the summon´s will aknowledge a contract made onesidedly by you if they think you´re unsuitable."

"How do you know if you´re suitable, how much power does it take and does control make any difference?"

"Oh yeah, you´re studying for medic on the side aren´t you? Supergreat control?"

Sakura nodded to both questions "Sorry, it only matters very little as the draw isn´t consciously controlled. It does matter for the summoning itself though. As for how much it takes, well it´s not totally certain, but last time I was rated for chakra level the result was a 4, and for me that´s enough to have 3 summon contracts and not feel any strain at all once I got used to it, I could probably add at least one or two more and still not have any problems. Unless you´re a low chakra type who´s getting rated at 1.5 or less you should have no problem with at least a single contract."

He stopped for a moment to think "As for finding out if the summon thinks you´re suitable, well as you may know how if you just use the summoning technique without a contract, with a bit of luck you will summon yourself to the home of the summon most suitable for you... If you have unsigned contracts however, you can instead try a summon on the contract, that will summon one of their lesser and you can simply ask it if you´re suitable. So, the four of you, last time the academy did evaluations what rating did you get for chakra level?"

"3", "B-barely 2.5", "3.5", "4, still rising and I can go much higher if I push" Sakura, Hinata, Tenten and Naruto answered.

"Well, if you want to try to have access to multiple summons, you can probably manage it all of you, Tenten and Naruto can probably use all three if they like you."

"Why doesnt more shinobi use summoning, I mean it sounds like there´s almost no downsides?"

"Some don´t have the chakra needed, many don´t have access to a contract, and being able to summon isn´t the same as being able to do useful summoning, if your ability isn´t good enough you wont get the summon you want or it may be weak and tired, or as if it was not quite there, worst case you may have a constant chakra drain and not get anything for it, there´s also the issue of potential risk of someone you dont want using the the seal used on the contract against you. It´s a very good technique but as with most things it has plenty enough drawbacks to even it out. So, want to show me the scrolls?"

Sakura got the scrolls and handed over the first while placing the other two on the table so they wouldnt be in the way.

Kenji spent several minutes looking and reading "Ok, this scroll is definitely for cats. They´re one of the few summons that I know for sure has a bunch of contracts active. Dad thinks it´s something to do with how they tend to be individualistic and doesnt seem to have any kind of organised structure where they come from. If they like you they´re supposedly very nice, their lack of structure means they´re not the most knowledgeable but they´re also not as tight about telling things... And best of all, they´re said to not care much about formalities and things like that as long you´re nice back at them..."

"Huh... Never would have guessed all that."

"Dont forget though that I might not be completely right even if I think I am, as I dont personally know anyone with a cat contract. It´s said they´re good contracts to have as there´s nearly always at least one cat that likes you enough to act as your summon, downside being that only those you actually know will respond in a predictable manner. Others may respond if they´re curious enough but it´s not something you should expect."

"Right. It´s still infinitely more than we knew before. Ok so next scroll?"

Kenji looked, his eyebrows went up and he looked through it even more thoroughly again.

"So, big bro, what is it?" Naruto finally couldn´t wait more.

"Hmm, I don´t know... I´m used to animals, even magic ones, and this is definitely something with humanlike prints."

"But, summons can´t..."

"Oh sure summons can be anything that has the right ability in it, or is capable of performing it, you can even make a contract between humans no problem, but I dont think this is human, as I said, human-LIKE."

"Huh... Right, the last one then?"

Kenji barely rolled it open before speaking, as he smiled slightly "Seems your mom liked cats, both small and large... This contract is for tigers, said to be... I guess you can say that while cats are on one extreme of a scale over how structured they are, with toads on the other end, tigers are somewhere in the middle. And I´m afraid that´s about what I know for sure."

"Cool!" Sakura, Tenten and Hinata all smiled at the predictable almost shout from Naruto. They also agreed with him even if they didn´t shout it out loud.

Without noticing the girls smiles Naruto continued "Let´s try them out!"

"Ok, but do exactly as I tell you, and if I step in and interrupt you, step back and don´t interfere, we don´t want to annoy them if we can avoid it, right?"

"Uh, yeah, right."

"Let´s go with the cat contract first, we can probably all use that contract."

.

After several rounds of dry practise, Naruto caused a drop of blood on his thumb, did the hand seals correctly and then slammed his hands down on the summoning scroll "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

There was a *poof* and then he was rewarded by a sight he had not been expecting "Aaahhh!" he shouted incoherently for a few seconds while the others in the room were looking on with shock obvious in their expressions, enough that they didn´t actually try to do anything, except of course, what were they supposed to do?

Next to the scroll, what had appeared was a very large cat, well over twice the size of a regular cat, it´s fur a mix of grey, black and orange, and rather disheveled. So far so good, mostly at least. The big problem was that the cat appeared on it´s back, with legs hanging limply to the sides, it´s eyes were closed and it´s tounge was hanging out on the side of it´s mouth.

It was not moving even the slightest. It looked quite dead.

Naruto changed to a panicked babbling, some of what could be heard during the next not quite half minute "My suitable cat summon is a DEAD one?" and much more nervously "I didn´t kill it did I?" ending with a very upset "Gaaah! You tricked me!" after which he pointed to the cat, who everyone now noticed was the source of a very soft "Hnh hnh hnh..." not quite snicker nor giggle nor laugh but somewhere in the general vicinity of all three.

Many facepalmings happened, mental or physical. "He´s a bit of a prankster it seems, just like you Naruto." Sakura quipped with amusement taking over.

"She, not he." Naruto said without thinking. Sakura looked at him with surprise. Hinata looked over at him "How can you know?"

"Uhm... How CAN I know?" a bewildered Naruto asked.

The cat rolled over and shook itself a bit, making the fur instantly look very nice "Because you did a trial summoning and got someone that you connect well with, namely me."

Naruto almost jumped, he wasn´t quite used to the idea of talking cats, no matter how he should have been, but quickly got himself back together again, trying to get back to at least some resemblance of manners "Eh, right... Uhm, well my name is Uzumaki Naruto, pleased to meet you and do you want to be my summon?"

The cat sniggered slightly at the odd little speech "My name is Kia, and I will accept a contract with you Naruto."

"Great! So Kia, what can you do?" meanwhile, Kurenai noted that the moment Kia had said she accepted the contract, Naruto´s handprint on the scroll, which except for the drop of blood was barely visible, changed to a clear and firm print.

"Well I can eat, sleep, chase mice, go fish and have fun playing pranks on people summoning me."

Naruto blinked a few times while those nearby more or less laughed. "No I mean what can you do to help me when I summon you?"

"Oh I guess I could have some fun helping you play pranks on someone?" -everyone- else in the room was laughing now, although mostly trying to keep it down. After a long moment, Naruto´s reply was roughly *aaargghh*.

Kia´s demeanor somehow changed imperceptibly but still obviously "If you meant -serious- stuff, I can help you in a fight, just remember that my size when I appear depends on how much chakra you used, and aside from that, I know or can find out lots of things that might someday be useful for you, never forget that you can always ask, I might not always tell you something even if I know it, but I wont be angry at you for asking. Got it?"

Naruto nodded slowly "Wait, you can change size?"

"Unlike most contract you can only summon -your- specific cat summon, you can ask another to appear but the connection is with one cat, so not to be outdone in simple power, we figured out how to base our size on how much chakra is used for the summoning."

"Hmm... Right, you try next Sakura." Kurenai had realised that if she let Kia and Naruto keep talking, it could quite possibly go on forever. At Kurenai´s suggestion to move on, Naruto stepped back from the scroll while Kia jumped up on the couch by the wall and made herself comfortable. Apparently wanting to enjoy the show for a while.

Sakura stepped up and quickly readied herself "Ok then here goes... Kuchiyose no jutsu!" unusually for Sakura she said the phrase loud and clear. An almost normalsized cat, black with some white markings appeared, sitting neatly in front of her.

"I am Shoni. And you are?"

"Haruno Sakura, I ask you to be my summon Shoni."

"Come here." Sakura sat down in front of Shoni, who put his paws on her shoulders, sniffed, then stretched forward and rubbed his nose against Sakura´s. "I accept a contract with you Sakura." he ended with what was resembling a slight bow, which Sakura quickly mimicked.

Looking around for a moment, giving a polite nod to Kia, Shoni then moved gracefully over to the couch, jumped up and after stopping a moment until Kia gave a tiny nod he lay down next to her.

Sakura smiled brightly, stepped back and motioned Hinata forward. Hinata hesitated a short moment then performed the hand seals perfectly and firmly stated "Kuchiyose no jutsu."

A light grey with a hint of blue cat appeared "I´m Maia, you desire to contract with me?" Hinata nodded a bit uncertain at the soft but firm tone, Maia walked up to her, then slowly walked around her with a carefully critical appraising look.

When she was back in front of Hinata she looked up at her for a moment then jumped, a startled Hinata just barely catching Maia in her arms "Done. It´s a long time since I had a contract with someone powerful. What´s your name?"

"H-hyuuga Hinata." she said with a slight blush. Being called powerful was something that had never happened to her.

After looking over to the other two cats and giving them a nod, Maia yawned big then settled more snugly into Hinatas embrace, when Hinata made several of the others cringe by cuddling the cat, summons were definitely not pets, Maia surprised them by starting to purr loudly.

Kurenai looked with surprise at Hinata´s happy face "I guess that went, well..."

A while later, all present had contracted with a cat summon, Kenji had been somewhat sceptic due to the question on where the summoning scroll would be kept, but Naruto had quickly agreed that it would be fine to let Kia keep it safe for him, and that was fine by Kenji as well.

All cats had chosen to remain, they clearly were interested in what was happening.

After some additional practise and some quick advise, Naruto tried with the second scroll, since it was his scrolls everyone thought it was he that should be trying first "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

After a long moment a slighty tall and rather lithe woman appeared with a small *poof*, with long darkblonde hair and eyes the same colour as her hair, a dark yellow not quite brown. And causing Kenji to utter a strangled cough since the amount of cloth on her, most people would think it not enough to make clothes for a newborn baby. Or for a pair of gloves. That she was stunningly beautiful didn´t hurt the impression either. Though her expression was rather lacking in showing anything.

When she calmly just stood there, having looked over the people in the room once and then back at Naruto, with some difficulty he finally spoke up "*Ahem* Right... I´m Uzumaki Naruto, who are you pretty lady and would you like to be my summon?" then he remembered the rest "Oh and uhm is anyone else here suitable to contract with you?"

There was a minimal hint of a twitch at the -pretty lady- but Naruto wasn´t sure if he had really seen it.

"I am yousei Iyana." the voice alone would probably be enough to get most males, and quite a few females as well, to go gooey over her presence "And I am never to be summoned lightly. Of those present, you is the only one currently suitable. If anyone else want´s to know if such change, they may summon me in no less than a year from now, or I may be, somewhat annoyed." the tone was ever nice, but the message was beyond obvious -bother me too much and you will regret it-. She continued after a moment "Do you wish to complete the contract?"

"Ehm, what can you do, I mean if I summon you sometime important how can you help?"

Iyana leaned her head to the side "You´re an Uzumaki, you should know that I´m not for common summons." she said it as if it was all the explanation needed, leaving Naruto more than a little confused "Do you wish to complete the contract?"

Naruto thought about it, the pretty lady with even less clothes than Anko taking a swim clearly implied that she had something to offer, even though it didn´t seem to be like the summons he had heard of before. '_Meh, I have lots of chakra, if it´s something useless it wont be a big problem anyway.'_

"Yes I wish to complete the contract!"

That brought the first smile to the woman, causing another strained groan, this time not just from Kenji. Then she walked up to Naruto, leaned down while embracing him and kissed Naruto. Long.

After about half a minute she broke the kiss and straightened up, gave Naruto´s hair a kind ruffling "Contract sealed and completed, you will understand soon." after which she disappeared with a loud *pop* that made at least half those present startle.

Not Naruto however, he was mostly just standing frozen in place looking silly. After a moment he blinked, then "Hey, what the..." the others looked at him as he seemed to move randomly a while "Now that is -cool-!"

"W-w-what?" Hinata squeaked out.

"It´s like... *ehm* Like I can feel my chakra much clearer now..."

'_Right... The Uzumaki´s were known for high chakra levels, and that makes it harder to learn control, so they actually managed to go and find a summon that could assist...' _Kurenai smiled at the thought, wondering how much effort that had probably taken.

Kurenai then noted that Naruto had gone back to being dazed again once he had the chance to think about what happened, she had a hard time not laughing, clearly not the only one either. Naruto had certainly not expected -that- to be how a summon might finalise a contract. Hinata also still looked slightly shocked.

"Kenji, would you do the honor of trying the last contract, I don´t think Naruto will be up to doing any more summonings today?"

Kenji was about to say that it was Naruto´s scroll and shouldn´t he do it anyway, then he looked at the boy in question "Ah, yes I guess that might be better after all." he switched to the last scroll "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

A normalsized tiger instantly appeared.

"I am Torakii of the greatest tiger clan, speak your message to the mighty lord of tigers, Toragin."

"Still as pretentious as ever." came from one end of the couch.

The tiger looked "Kia... I should have known." and then sighed very theatrically as it sat down "Can´t ever let me have some fun can she..." it grumbled then looked up at Kenji "Sorry little boy, I like the way you feel already but your chakra does not suit us."

Kenji faltered for a moment, it was the first time ever an animal had rejected him in -any- way, but quickly got back to business "Well, you´re welcome to visit me if you wish, how about the others here, would any of them be suitable?"

Torakii looked around slowly, focusing on each person for a long moment "Those three are acceptable." he said as he pointed at Sakura, Hinata and Tenten, adressing them "If you wish to contract, sign and I will accept you here and now."

* * *

Sasuke was slightly annoyed, when Kurenai´s study group had moved over to learning and practising more specific things longterm, Kurenai had been quite firm on drafting the best students in different areas to help her teach those in each smaller group, or like with Sasuke, simply letting him handle the group all by himself after the first couple of sessions. Since no group included more than at most a third of the students in total it allowed far better use of all their time.

Sakura was helping Kurenai teach genjutsu and teaching chakra control and chakra boosting on her own, Nana had been almost literally dragged into teaching henge, with what sometimes could be called assistance from Naruto, as well as chakra stealth, Tenten had one group learning throwing and another with Sakura and Kurenai for improving seals.

The small Saeko was quickly adding skill to the small group practising kawarimi. Akiko taught chakrasensing and after her rapid gain of proficiency also helped Sasuke teaching wire use, which Sasuke considered lucky because the group he was currently trying to teach how to use fire ninjutsu was not easy and had already many times tried his patience, that it was one of the largest groups didn´t help.

That both Ino and Sakura was part of it had gone better than he had first feared, but they could still be quite annoying, Nana could be quite impossible if he managed to annoy her, at least Chouji, Kyouya, Gin and Tenten were decently good learners and also did not cause any big problems. The last in this group, Kiba, was not currently present, his affinity was minimal and unlike Sakura, he wasn´t really a quick learner, so he attended enough to allow him to learn it eventually, but for now instead focusing on his stronger water affinity.

But despite that Sasuke was also quite pleased at the situation, heading the group meant he got extra time to improve his own skill, and he had found that teaching also provided him with insights on the subject that he would never have thought of otherwise, just having to study less commonly used knowledge to answer questions had shown him quite a few very interesting facts and given many more ideas, but of course, he also had less time to actually try out those ideas.

Teaching by itself had also made him look at his own skills from a different perspective, something he had found quite useful. And Gai had even commented that he had visibly matured since he had started acting as a teacher.

* * *

AN:

Yousei btw roughly means fairy. Essentially, Iyana is a nymph.

New semi-OC, Kenji is based surprisingly closely on Kenji Harima from School Rumble, and if you haven´t seen that series already, do so. It is quite amusing.

Real world ninjutsu of the day, a simple way to estimate how long until sunset. If you hold out your arm straight, with the hand angled inwards, you place the upper edge of the hand to the lower edge of the sun, from there you can measure how many hands/fingers you can fit between the edge of the sun and the horizon. You will need to calibrate depending on your own size, exactly where on the hand you use (I use the end of the thumb for easy precision) what latitude you´re at and to a much smaller degree what time of year it is.

When you get it right, each finger will represent about 15 minutes, so a full hand (excluding the thumb) means 1 hour. Just don´t look directly at the sun now.

Next chapter should at least not take longer than this one and will be the first where action is the main part.


	15. An visitor Stay a while, stay forever!

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

-*o*-

-Another visitor. Stay a while, **stay forever**!-

* * *

"So, should we try doing the chakra storage seal for Naruto tomorrow then?"

"Mmm, I guess, we should have the time for it. At least the male version is a damn lot simpler than the complete one."

Sakura smirked "Yup, I´m sure it will only take three or four hours!" she said with sarcasm obvious.

Tenten giggled a little "Seriously though, it shouldn´t take more than one hour I think?"

"Remember who we are talking about here, he needs to stay completely still, and even if the markings wont be covering nearly as much of the body before activation, uncomfortable is still a huge understatement. And not to forget, we have to place it so it wont interfere with his other seal."

Tenten frowned as she thought "True, even with the smaller version it´s certainly going to poke at one of his absolute worst sides... And the placing will be a bit awkward..." she perked up a little "Hey, can´t you ask Kurenai to teach you that thing she used when we applied it on her?"

"The genjutsu to put herself in meditative trance? That -was- neat... Yeah, it should work..." Sakura grinned "And maybe we should use it on Hinata when we do it as well..."

"What? Oh..." Tenten chuckled "Maybe we should... While she probably could keep still better than either of us, she -would- get extremely embarassed wouldn´t she?"

"I think we can call that completely certain. I certainly felt embarassed, and even if it got alot more messed up when we did it on you, call it the learning experience or something, I don´t think you blushed just because I had to redo some parts of the seal, what was it, five times at worst?" Sakura shook her head slowly at the memory of how problematic it had been to figure out how to do some parts of the seal. Acrobatics wasn´t a strong enough description.

"Ehrm... Mmm... So, if you can get that genjutsu, or have Kurenai help us with it, we do Naruto tomorrow and then Hinata... next weekend?"

"Mmm, yes unless I get a mission... We better make sure Naruto is out of the house when we do it on her though, or, since it´s for her he´s going to want to see it done, and then one way or another Hinata would explode from embarassment..."

"What about showing him that seal you created for changing hair colour? He´s really looking way too much like his dad now that I know about it, and it´s simple enough that he should be able to learn it in a few days."

"-I- created? You did most of the work Sakura!"

"I just took the concept from the seal you decoded and applied the theory to hair colour, you´re the one that actually made a new seal out of it, I didn´t understand half of how you managed to recombine it like that."

Tenten smiled "Fine, WE did it, equal parts ok? Because without the work you did, I wouldn´t have had anywhere to start from."

Sakura smiled back.

* * *

-*o*-

As Naruto and Sasuke lined up against each other, on the side of the training ground Sakura asked Hinata "Did you notice, on the way here?"

Hinata nodded "D-do you think Sasuke noticed?"

Sakura barely gave it any thought "No, Naruto was very sneaky when he did it, and Sasuke doesn´t know him as well as we do. I´m not sure what he expects a single shadow clone to achieve though..."

Out on the field, both boys started off by trying to attack, a one-two combination punch from Naruto who had to break off and hastily roll to the side as Sasuke went for an indirect leg sweep as his own beginning move.

"Stealth, he is going to switch himself with it at some point to get away from Sasuke´s view." Hinata spoke firmly.

Naruto´s first strike just had time to cause a light glancing hit, but though Sasuke´s sweep missed completely, having to avoid it put Naruto in a less than great position and before he could get back into a decent guard position he took a few blows lightly.

"Mmm, I guess... Sasuke is still the better fighter so unless he can successfully surprise him from hiding right away, it wont give him that much more will it?"

Hinata was silent for a while "I´m n-not sure, but it s-should shake Sasuke up." She winced a bit from when they rushed in close again and traded some very rapid strikes, with one catching Naruto a bit too hard right in the chest.

"Ow, that one probably hurt a bit, he really should have dodged left instead, after all the times I´ve sparred with him, and he still walks straight into a blow that´s almost like mine..." Sakura shook her head.

"H-he tried to turn it into a r-roll and throw, S-sasuke was a lot faster than you would have been."

While looking at how they clashed in close again after having traded a few throwing weapons from maybe a dozen meters, Sakura blinked as she thought about it "He came up with that to counter -me-?"

Hinata winced again, this time a lot as Naruto managed to get a very decent kick in on Sasuke´s leg. Sasuke went down, but before Naruto could exploit it, Sasuke actually managed a *Great fireball* technique without hand seals, causing both girls to stare and Naruto to quickly move aside from the massive cloud of fire that shot out "Y-yes, he found that it was a w-weak spot, so he took the basic low throw-roll from Juunan Taiso to use as a defensive move when someone tries to hit him like that. D-did you know Sasuke could do t-that so quickly and without any hand seals?"

Sakura shook her head slowly "First time I see it. That is just -SO- impressive, fire isn´t even his better element, he´s only average with it... It may be considered a basic skill for Uchiha, but I doubt many of them could do it like -that-."

With the fireball forcing the two apart once more, Naruto used the extra range to spend the time trying out the *Kage bunshin shuriken* jutsu, suddenly it was Sasuke that was dodging projectiles, and not with ease, even though Naruto was new with it and used it with reduced force, it was sparring after all, it was still not easy to avoid several dozens chakra constructs flying at you.

"Mmm, oooh that was neat Naruto! Almost got him several times there." Hinata almost started cheering.

"I figured he would be good with that, considering how good he is with the kage bunshin and some ninjutsu overall... Way better accuracy than when he´s throwing normally by hand. And he learned it almost as quick as the kage bunshin itself."

From almost the middle of the field, where the two had a little standoff they heard Sasuke shout "Come on dummy, show me your new dummies!" Sakura snorted a short laugh while even Hinata had to smile "So that´s why he was so insistent on getting a spar..." Sakura said, still smiling because of how Naruto had reacted, which was mostly not at all, even a year ago he would have been more likely to just stop and start shouting something rude back. He was clearly tempted to do so now, but with a hint of a smile he continued to move.

Then he did a for him very rapid series of hand seals "Fuuton: Reppushou!" throwing his hand forward he caused a fairly decent gust of wind, aimed and mostly focused. Sasuke almost avoided it but still lost his footing and tumbled a bit, with less control than he probably wanted.

"Now, soon..." Hinata silently said, then added "I-I think..." causing a short laugh from Sakura. Naruto was in the middle of charging in close while Sasuke was still getting up, the latter had not spent his little roll on the ground for nothing and Naruto suddenly dodged wildly to the side just as Sasuke called out "Raiton: Tanraku!", causing a very visible arc of lightning to flash out from one of his hands, via a zig-zag pattern of kunai he had thrown earlier, ending at Sasuke´s other hand. Naruto *yowled* as his leg was a tiny moment too late in getting away from the affected area.

"Hmm, so that´s why he practised that sequence of hand seals..." Sakura shook her head and frowned "He really ought to just learn to do them -all- well."

"B-better than n-nothing right?"

"I guess, but if he´s going to practise sequences instead of the seals themselves, he´s going to add an extra problem for learning new techniques..." then at Naruto´s shout added "Uhg, that was close, he would have been down if it had hit him fully."

Hinata nodded with an unhappy grimace.

Sasuke rushed in, this time preparing another Raiton, a small one for stunning, only touch range but also not complicated to use like the Tanraku, yet it would likely be an automatic win if he hit with it. Naruto jumped around and a very short moment before he would have been hit, lashed his arm out and managed to put a chakra barrier between them.

They stood almost still for a long time while Sasuke tried to force through and Naruto tried to keep the shield from collapsing. Then finally the charge in Sasuke´s hand disappeared, the moment after Naruto let the shield *poof* out of existance as he jumped sideways to get some distance again.

"There!" Hinata said with excitement.

Sakura missed it "Huh?"

"He used when the shield went down to switch."

Sakura tried to look closer but was unable to see any difference, but if Hinata said that it was now the kage bunshin they had seen him create very inconspiciously while enroute to this training field, that´s what it was.

The fight continued for a few more minutes, with the change that the -current Naruto- was being a lot more cautious, and while trying to not be obvious about it, tried to fight without either getting hit or using too much chakra, as it would eventually be obvious that this was a clone, because clones did not produce new chakra, they only had the finite amount they were created with. Clearly Naruto wanted that moment to come later rather than sooner.

"Well it´s nice to see he managed to keep that barrier up for as long as he needed this time."

"He´s worked v-very hard on it... It is still n-not reliable but I´m sure he will succeed."

Sakura smiled slightly at Hinata´s belief in Naruto, noting to herself that she was probably still correct. As long as it wasn´t something that clearly -didn´t- suit him, he could usually learn it sooner or later.

Then suddenly, Sasuke stopped, the girls looked to the forest at the edge of the field he was looking towards, and neatly in concert, groaned. Twenty Naruto´s were there, looking like an enthusiastic audience, but with a lot of rude gestures, and a moment later also some shouts aimed at Sasuke.

Though the girls(and certainly Sasuke as well) were very thankful when two clones smacked a third enough to make it disappear, as it had started mooning towards them.

"Well, I guess Naruto certainly remains himself..." Sakura said with a sigh at how he had used the opportunity to get his real self out of sight for what could mostly be called a prank, rather than to try and get the drop on Sasuke.

On the other hand, Sasuke was somewhere in between of getting annoyed and laughing at the whole thing, certainly reducing his efficiency. The same was unfortunately also true for the clone Naruto had switched places with, and almost too fast to be seen Sasuke closed in, a couple of snakes shot out from his arm across the last few meters of distance, and the clone went *poof* after a very short moment of being rather surprised.

"Oooh, Sasuke has become good with those chakra constructs..."

"Mmm..."

Before Sasuke had time to do anything more, from the edge of the field, several dozen Naruto charged towards him. The response was a measured and careful set of hand seals followed by "Goukakyuu no jutsu!" as Sasuke blew out a massive fireball that neatly dispelled over half his visible opposition and forcing the rest to scatter.

"O-k, so it wasn´t that he was so good at it that he could just drop the seals, he simply accepts that a much smaller fireball can be done quickly without hand seals..." Sakura said with a bit of stunned awe in her voice, that had been one VERY big cloud of fire. Sure it looked more impressive than it was, it was only really truly damaging if someone got stuck inside it, or got hit with it centered on you, but as just showed, that center could get quite big, and that if used well even very mobile people could have trouble avoiding it.

Hinata nodded slowly. While she wasn´t interested in Sasuke like Sakura was, that had still been darned impressive.

With a tightlipped smile, Sasuke started engaging the rest of the clones, trying to get rid of as many as possible while they were still scattered and offbalance.

A few seconds, and a few dispelled clones later, he had to dodge as a handful more clones appeared, now thoroughly spread out so as to not make themselves and easy target, and with a few hand seals and "Uzumaki Bakuhatsu!" each threw a single small orb, two even dispelling as they did it not good enough, and the explosions where they impacted was not something you wanted to be too close to.

Hinata frowned a bit "H-he´s drawing a lot of chakra f-from... Fluffy..." then activated her eyes.

Sakura winced "Do we need to do anything about it?"

Hinata sighed after a moment "N-no, he´s k-keeping it under control s-so far."

"Ok, keep an eye on him until they´re done then..."

"Mmm..." Hinata startled a bit when several of the exploding orbs went off at almost the same time, from the fourth wave with just a few clones sent in to use them.

"You ok?"

"I c-can handle it. Took a long while t-to get used to the brightness, especially when there´s several..."

Sakura nodded and looked back at the currently somewhat onesided fight, Naruto clones came running onto the field and throwing attacks while Sasuke mostly just defended and caused clones to dispel as fast as Naruto sent them out. Sasuke was pressured but seemed to hold up well.

Her expression became not quite a scowl "Naruto is being careless, if he keeps throwing those Bakuhatsu things around like that, I´m going to have to go in and break it up and award Sasuke the win by default."

"Eh?"

"They strictly agreed not to use anything that was likely to cause permanent or lasting damage, and those explosions, anyone get a direct hit and that most certainly isn´t true."

"Oh... But what about Sasuke´s fire clouds then?"

"They´re not aimed the same way, it´s much slower, and you have to be very clumsy or unlucky to get badly hurt by them... Or, Sasuke would have to trap Naruto in the middle of one, he clearly hasn´t tried that."

Hinata thought for a moment while watching then gave an unhappy grimace "You´re right... Though I think Sasuke would be as annoyed at you if you stopped them now as Naruto would be for getting a forced loss." she smiled at Sakura.

Sakura snorted a half laugh "Hah, you´re probably right about that!"

A moment later Hinata startled "Whoa..." as they saw a clone jump in above Sasuke and form something barrier-like almost between it and Sasuke. Jump from it and in the air, and then throw a bundle of projectiles from a for Sasuke very inconvenient angle. Almost catching him in the back with a few.

"What the hell was -that-?"

"I, think he tried to combine his barrier with the Bakuhatsu..."

"But he used it like a stepping stone?"

"Well-"

"Don´t say it, he used the jump to balance the force from the energy expended downwards..."

"OR, the other way around... I think the jump was the reason, the explosion was just a diversion to let the clone get a free shot at Sasuke´s back."

Sakura thought for a moment "Heh, you might be right. That´s damned sneaky..."

Hinata smiled. Then she frowned "Oh dear... I think S-sasuke managed to f-find Naruto."

"The -missed- throw towards the edge of the field?"

"Mmm... And I think Naruto didn´t notice it."

Another clone dashed in, but instead of completely avoiding it, Sasuke tried to sidestep it just barely while doing a few speedy hand seals "Raiton: Tanraku!" lightning arced out to the forest edge where a loud "Yeowch!" was heard. However, the clone that Sasuke sidestepped, surprised him by not going for a direct attack, instead doing another barrier whose away side then blew up towards Sasuke, a bare moment before all clones dispelled, Sasuke still getting thrown back forcefully.

"Crap! You check on Naruto!" Sakura said as she ran towards the downed Sasuke who was not looking entirely great.

Sakura reached the downed and very dazed boy in a few seconds and quickly began checking him out methodically and neatly, she was probably at least another year from actually becoming a medic, but she already knew all the basics, and quite a bit more still, it was more a matter of taking enough time and not rushing.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a semi-conscious Naruto being half lifted towards them by Hinata and quietly sighed in relief.

As the other two got closer she spoke up at the far too cheery looking Naruto "Baka! Do you realise that even if you had not lost by going unconscious, I would have to give Sasuke the win by default?"

"Eh... Wha...?"

"That last exploding barrier or whatever you call them, just a little closer or more forceful and Sasuke could have been badly injured-"

"Hey, I´m fine!" Sasuke said as he got up on his elbow, and almost toppled over.

"-be quiet and stay down, no you´re not fine, you see those marks you got, those are bruises caused by the explosion, just a little worse and they would have been much worse looking because they would also be caused by -internal injuries-."

Naruto´s face had dropped instantly "Oh crap, those bakuhatsu bougyo never worked properly before... I´m so sorry Sasuke! He´s going to be ok right?"

"Yes he will be alright, AND he still won the spar." Sakura turned back to Sasuke while Naruto let out a small wail of despair, well maybe not quite that bad but he was never happy about loosing "And you, I´m going to take you back home and then you will rest, and I mean stay in bed for the rest of today and all of tomorrow-"

Sasuke was about to start protesting.

"-and if you so much as think about not following orders, I will attend to you personally to keep you from making those injuries worse. Assisted by Lee."

Sasuke was still quite dazed. Now he wished he was even more dazed, much more. Getting used to his fellow apprentice had not been entirely easy, the thought of having Sakura nursing him, he could handle that now that she wasn´t so damned clingy any longer, but the extreme overzealousness of Lee applied towards nursing, he actually shivered at the thought. And she was clearly speaking in the role of the medic she almost was, he had learned to notice that, for some reason Sakura became very firm, unyielding even, when she did.

"...Fine..." after a moment he realised Sakura had already spent chakra on healing him "Thanks Sakura."

A few minutes later two boys, each with an arm over a girl, were half lifted half walked towards their respective homes. Although Naruto by this time at least could have walked by himself without too much difficulty, Hinata insisted on helping, and that was the end of that. He had quit trying to talk her out of things like that a long time ago by now.

* * *

-*o*-

"You wanted to see me Kurenai?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, I found out a little more about what happened during the fight with Mizuki just the other day, the kids had forgotten about telling it to me and it was just because the Kyuubi came up in a discussion that I heard about it and what Naruto has been doing."

"Doing, I dont like the sound of that, something I need to worry about?"

"Actually it might be the very opposite. The beginning is pretty simple, as you know Naruto got angry at Mizuki and set a horde of clones on him when he threatened the girls, and... well he started drawing on the chakra of the Kyuubi because of it, Hinata saw it and warned him about it."

"I see, go on." he had already heard most of that.

"So later when they talked about it, Hinata was very graphic about how much she really didn´t like what she saw, and although Sakura was pretty much out of it at the time, but even she had still felt it and also very much didn´t like the feeling, Naruto himself couldn´t really remember so exactly but he trusts Hinata and with Sakura adding to that he decided that since he can´t never get angry again, he will have to come up with a way to control the Kyuubi even when he gets angry..."

The hokage smiled appreciatively "Oh, well that does sound like a good idea, in theory at least, so I hope he didn´t come up with any too insane training methods for it, even the sanest shinobi seem to come up with odd ways of training all too easily..."

Kurenai chuckled slightly "Actually, I´ve seen them do it at least once and I didn´t even realise it, I was going to ask them about it but forgot. And it was Sakura that came up with the idea."

The Hokage´s eyebrows lifted in surprised questioning.

"Well, anger seems to be the trigger they could figure out, but you know Naruto, he can get angry yes but it´s very rare for him to really blow up, he might be disappointed underneath but most of the time he will laugh away what to others would cause anger... So, since Hinata is still fairly meek, though I have to say she´s improved greatly, it was up to Sakura."

She laughed "Essentially, she came up with them having a war of insults until he got angry enough for the Kyuubi chakra to show up involuntarily, Hinata watching for that from the sideline, then she tells him, at which point he starts trying to get a feel for it and take back full control while Sakura keeps goading him to keep him angry, Hinata now instead watching to make sure he doesn´t loose control, then she would step in between them while Sakura use kawarimi to get some distance."

The Hokage´s mouth hung slightly open while he forgot to breathe for a long moment "... That... I guess Sakura is as good at coming up with insane training of just the regular kind then..." he said with a half *hmph* half laugh. Silently but fervently thanking any gods or spirits that may have helped to keep the village from blowing up in the process.

"Three times since then he has started to lose control but Hinata was able to have him back down again very quickly which is why noone seem to have noticed, more importantly however is that he is now fairly confident that even if angry he wont loose control easily. Interestingly, it also seems to have helped Sakura get her temper in check, I´m really quite happy how much she has matured in the last months."

"The difference is so big? Can´t have been just that crazy training?"

"No, it´s been coming along for a while now but the clincher was what happened with Mizuki, she truly realised consciously then how much she cared about Hinata and Naruto. Before that, being much around Hinata has meant that she had to be assertive for the group because Hinata simply wasn´t and Naruto was mostly just random and rather variable in his confidence, but also not having to constantly compete like she always does with Ino who is already plenty assertive herself, when with her team she had to and also had the chance to start thinking... Mmm I´m not expressing myself really well but in short, having Naruto and Hinata nearby forced her towards becoming the adult and later the leader."

"I see... Well that´s good I expect. I assume that was just about what you were hoping for?"

"Not quite, it actually turned out better than I was either hoping or planning for, I hadn´t expected either of them to be this far ahead until sometime after graduation, but you can´t rule out random chance nor control enemies you dont know of so things happened that fortunately sped things up in the right direction."

The Hokage nodded with a smile "Well it´s nice at least when just for once enemies does something that -helps-..."

Kurenai smiled "Quite so. Oh, talking about Sakura, I´m a bit surprised how well her chakra level has improved, she has gone from fairly low to above average in just the last year, and I certainly don´t focus on training it the way some, like Kaori, does. SHE is turning her first genin team seriously powerful in chakra. But, combining genjutsu, ninjutsu, medical and physical training as a package really seems to have worked well for Sakura."

"Mmm... Kaori certainly has an interesting philosophy for training. And it is certainly better to have more, while unusual with such large increases so quickly, it´s nothing to worry about and I am happy for Sakura, you know how limiting it can be for some, like Kakashi, it´s really his only serious drawback that he´s only above average in chakra."

"He could easily have been my level by now, if he had bothered to really train for it like I´ve done."

"Well..." the hokage leaned his head to the side and wiggled the fingers on an outstretched hand.

"Ok, perhaps not easily, but probably close at least. He´s not really a low-chakra kind of person at the core, just not serious enough to train it."

"True. So, do you think Sakura has hit her soft or hard limit yet?"

Kurenai thought for a moment "I think she will plateau as she is now or slightly higher, but I dont think she´s bumping into any actual limits, she simply has enough now that she can do just about everything she needs without really straining."

"And the others?"

"Hinata has improved decently but a bit slower than I had hoped, looks like she will end up somewhere around average when they graduate."

"That is still most excellent for a brand new genin."

"True... But I´m thinking about adding some more training for chakra though, as you said it is a valuable asset and I think Hinata has a lot more potential than that, and several of the others in my group at the academy have improved far better as well. And Naruto, well, he is almost at my level even if he draws nothing at all from the Kyuubi, I think he will go slightly higher than me around graduation, though it seems he´s finally levelling out."

"And -with- chakra from the Kyuubi?"

"He only really accessed it seriously during the incident with Mizuki so it´s hard to say, especially about how long he can last like that... But from what I could gather from them, he went so high he´s not even close to being on the usual scale..." she trailed off thoughtfully.

"Hmm?" the Sandaime raised en eyebrow in question.

"I think I just realised why Hinata isn´t progressing faster with chakra levels. She´s -too good- at pacing herself."

"Oh? I thought you had kept them training quite a lot?"

"Yes, but thinking of how Naruto keeps pushing, it made me realise that even when she´s training hard, she still paces herself so that she never comes close to exhaustion."

"I see... For both skills and physical improvement, that is indeed quite a good thing, but not for chakra development..." he frowned "But why?"

"I have a bad feeling that we already know... That kind of pacing, where is it completely normal, even an absolute must have?"

"Hmm? Oh... You mean she paces herself as if on a mission, always needing to be ready for the unexpected?"

"Exactly. And-"

"The kidnap attempt..."

"Probably." she sighed "Well, at least now I have something to work with. It was really starting to bug me considering how well Sakura started improving, but now that I think of it, once I convinced her to get serious, she has thrown herself into the training with everything she has. She even tries to keep up with Naruto." that made them chuckle.

* * *

-*o*-

"Not bad kid, not bad... You´re not getting lazy with Gai´s training are you?"

"No sensei." Sasuke got out between panting.

Anko nodded, she already knew that perfectly well but she wanted to hear how he would respond "So tell me then, how are you going to beat Itachi then?"

Sasuke stiffened and almost said something stupid, when she saw that he stopped himself from looking like a fool she grinned, he took a few seconds to cool down and actually think about it, by now he knew that despite how much better Anko was than him, she would have serious problems against Itachi, and while Gai and Kurenai were both a big, very clear notch better still, they too would not have an easy time against the forever damned Itachi.

She was still smiling slightly, patiently waiting for his answer "I will take everything I can learn from you, from Gai-sensei and from Kurenai-sensei, combine it as best I can and make it my own, become so good that he wont know what hit him."

"Ooh, not bad for a start there kid! You´re definitely getting better at thinking things through and keeping your temper in control, still not good enough but we´re getting there."

"... Thanks, I think..."

"I heard about your little tussle with the prank-boy, from the girls, it seems you did pretty well there?"

"Not good enough but I did win."

Anko smiled at how he actually managed to reply with a decent degree of objectivity "And if you keep getting better, if you´re a -really- good boy, and IF I can get both Gai and the hokage to agree, I´ll let you have a chance at signing my snake summon contract before graduation."

Despite how tired he was after this latest hourlong session of almost gruelingly hard training, that cemented his strive to improve even more as his face turned into a grin, Anko may be a nutjob, but she was actually a much better -teacher- for him than Gai was "Wait, -your- contract?"

Anko looked away "Well yeah, it wasn´t easy but I wanted to be rid of anything to do with -him- so after a lot of troubles I managed to convince my favorite snake to create a new contract and completely erase me from the old one, really didn´t want to give him even more ways of trying to control me..."

Sasuke nodded slowly, he knew enough about her history and the so called -seal of heaven- to understand quite well, he shuddered slightly at the thought of being stuck with such a nasty thing, trying to assert control over you constantly, every second for the rest of your life.

* * *

-*o*-

-*o*-

The shadow was moving very cautiously through the night. Last time he had infiltrated Konoha, he had done so with complete knowledge of when and where patrols would be, and which patrols to avoid.

And that was why he was here, because the one who had supplied that information had been Mizuki, and now it seemed that the man had just disappeared, Orochimaru had not even been able to find out for sure when it had happened, only that it was within the span of a few weeks. While overall, Mizuki was considered mostly useless and unimportant, that he had been able to get access to the ANBU patrol records had been extremely useful.

He had been forced to spend five nights just trying to plot the ANBU patrols, and on the sixth night when he did his first attempt to infiltrate, he almost got detected immediately because the first patrol he had to avoid included one of the never to be sufficiently damned Inuzuka´s and their equally to be damned dogs.

His mission was to reach the place where Orochimaru´s main agent in the town should by now have placed at least an update and hopefully a complete explanation of what had happened, since the man was part of a genin-team he could only rarely get away enough to make a drop in a place easier to pick up from, so this inner-town point had been created, unfortunately noone had expected it needing to be used because the person who supplied the ability to actually get to the point without trouble was the one that had gone missing...

He sighed to himself, counting seconds, then by the exact time he had predetermined, rushed across a street, up on a roof jumped to a roof across the next street, jumped down silently and then quickly hiding in the spot he had found three days earlier and supressing his chakra to the utmost then waited, not long after four shadows passed nearby, far too near for him to be happy about it but luck was with him and none of them seemed to be either an Inuzuka, Hyuuga or some other sensorspecialist.

Half an hour later, after a complex and precisely timed series of movements, hiding and dashing, he was at least halfway to his target when he heard voices closing on his current hideout, which he couldn´t leave for another 137 seconds, or more preferably 211 seconds as he would otherwise get dangerously close to a temporary ANBU watchpoint before reaching his next hiding place. '_Damn, there wasn´t supposed to be any people on this back street at this time, that´s the very reason I picked it for this part!_'

When the fairly large group of youngsters stopped nearby he got both nervous and relieved, nervous that they might have detected him, then relieved as he realised that they were indeed certainly not adults. '_Damn kids getting home late from a party or something, that´s not supposed to happen in the middle of the week!_' he thought, very annoyed at the additional problem they posed.

And they just had to stop and chat this close to him, he couldn´t make out what they were saying at all but they didn´t sound alert so at least they probably hadn´t noticed him. Not that they should be able to either, unless they were shinobi brats with at least one -very- good sensor among them and what were the odds of that?

* * *

-*o*-

With less than a month left until academy graduation, the students that had been part of Kurenai´s extra classes for the last two years had been invited to a little get-together at her house as a not quite official ending of the training sessions, sessions that would not actually end until the week before graduation.

The day after was free because the academy would be busy with a teacher conference and meetings so many of them had stayed quite late before finally realising that it was indeed very late and maybe they shouldn´t sleep away the whole next day even if they could.

Naruto and Hinata were simply following Sakura home, as well as the others part of the way. It was a nice evening after all.

Mizore had stayed late mostly because she wanted to see if Nana managed to prank Naruto again, the salt in his soft drink thing had caused an absolutely hilarious grimace and his reaction to being flirted with while Nana had henge´d into pretending to be Anko as the ultimate partycrasher, that scene would not be forgotten soon by anyone! Nana had been on a roll tonight for sure!

Chouji´s motivation for stretching the time was simple, lots of food and nice people around, certainly couldn´t run off from that early!

Ino was a bit annoyed that Sasuke was playing hard to get but overall pleased with the nice little almost party.

Kiba, well most of his pack stayed late, so of course he did as well. Not that -he- thought of it in those terms of course.

Sasuke had rather stayed away, but Gai and Lee had practically ordered him to at least go, and once there, well it wasn´t so bad... But then he had seen how Nana had started a new offensive in the Naruto/Nana prank war, and that was just too amusing to risk missing anything, and so he stayed despite being chased around by Ino.

Nana was beyond pleased with herself, she had practically mauled Naruto through and through with pranks and practical jokes, the most she had ever managed successfully in a single day.

And even if the not quite party was totally lame by her normal standards, it was still a nice variation to be with others near her own age.

Akiko, she had stayed late simply as an extension of being happy that she had signed on for the extra classes. Her skills were still not great and somewhat onedimensional, but she was sure that she would be able to make genin now, something that would have been highly unlikely without the extra training. Now her taijutsu was -just- really bad instead of atrociously awful, and having learned the basics of conscious chakraboosting as well as using wires, she knew she could improve a lot now, as now it was more a matter of time and improving...

And she had almost managed to compete evenly with Sakura when learning from the medic-nin Kurenai had scrounged up for them, and that was definitely a big thing considering how Sakura was looked at as a potential rising star medic-nin. She had been told that although she lacked the talent for it that Sakura had, she might still be able to become an exceptional medic, maybe even more, such praise was something she had never had before.

Thinking about training, almost as if by rote, got her to do a scan for chakra in the area around them, causing her to blink in surprise after a moment as she realised what she was sensing.

Thinking furiously for a moment, she then waited until they had walked a handful more steps and reached the next intersection of roads, then raised her hand, keeping it so that Kiba should be in between her hand and the one she had sensed, and to the surprise of those that saw it gave the hand signals for covert, halt and hostile nearby.

Since not everyone noticed it and the light was only a little more than just enough to see it, the group stopping next to a corner was messy, but that also made sure it didn´t look like they were experienced shinobi.

She whispered "Keep talking as if we´re about to split up to go home." just loud enough to carry to all of them, she still wasn´t good enough to detect with perfect precision and only knew roughly where whoever it was was trying to hide both from them, and from the ANBU team patrol that had passed nearby not long ago.

She probably wouldn´t even have noticed him if it wasn´t for how focused he obviously was on hiding from the ANBU. Which should have been the worse threat. Akiko was just one of the few to have some real talent with chakradetection.

After a moment of disorganisation and everyone realising what was going on, Sakura and Nana quickly started a conversation, soon joined in by the normally not so talkative Sasuke doing his best to sound natural and not long after, Kiba and Chouji and then the others, trying to keep up a normal seeming group chat while rapidly either whispering back and forth or using a few hand signals once Akiko had shown which direction the likely hostile was in.

A few minutes later, after a lot of covert talk of what to do, Sasuke hissed "Come on we need to figure out what to do before I run out of plattitudes here." causing several of the other to laugh, with both Sakura and Nana showing him a thumbs up, and Nana whispering back "Pull a few more bad jokes like that if you can then red-eyes."

That of course led to an argument between the two, occasionally causing a laugh from one of the others. Sasuke almost instantly figured out that Nana had baited him exactly because it was a perfect cover but he was still annoyed at the all too often infuriating girl.

Three minutes later the barebones of something that might be called a plan existed.

* * *

-*o*-

'_Finally!_' the intruder thought when the group, after a mixture of arguments, chatting and laughing split up, 2 going back the way they came, 3 turning his way, 3 going forward and 2 the opposite direction.

When the three coming closer seemed to stop almost outside of the small pit he currently occupied, he got nervous again, but after a few words he couldn´t quite make out, he heard a door open and close nearby, and then the two boys started walking again, much more leisurely this time.

Focusing his far from good chakra detection he could just barely notice how the other 3 groups disappeared outside his range. And was greatly annoyed at how slovenly the closest two boys were moving, chatting quietly as they took forever to move away.

But he was already late. Thinking over the schedules he had theorised, he decided.

After another 3 minutes of straining to remain still, he moved in a slightly altered route that would hopefully not put him in the middle of the next patrol.

Having moved quickly past 2 roads, over 3 rows of houses he stopped with some surprise, he was almost sure he had heard something... But he couldn´t make anything out, so after the proper wait, he moved to his next waypoint. And again stopped in not quite confusion, this time he much more carefully boosted his hearing and could clearly hear someone else´s breathing.

But no matter how he tried he could not pinpoint it, when he first heard it clearly, it had sounded slightly strained, but it calmed down fairly quickly. Trying to scan the nearby area with chakra detection what he felt was woefully inconclusive. He felt like there were noone near him, and yet he could feel the presence of someone´s chakra dangerously close.

Now worried, he changed his next waypoint radically, and moved away early, first further forward then the moment he landed so that he was unseen from anyone behind him, he moved sideways.

* * *

-*o*-

Akiko, Sakura and Mizore were moving as fast as they could, trying to get ahead of the intruder, covered by a few minor illusions to dampen their presence to both normal senses as well as chakra detection. If the hostile was good, it wouldn´t be enough, but he hadn´t seemed to notice so far.

Akiko suddenly stopped "He´s noticed Nana! He´s trying to evade or trap her."

"That wont work when she´s that close, at least we have a fair guess how far he can see, which is certainly not far, lets move in closer to block him, if it took that long to spot her he can certainly not detect us at least."

"I´m surprised she managed to keep up with him, that guy moves really fast. Watch out for that later."

"Mm-k, gimme a direction Aki-chan?"

"There, and Nana there, looks like he´s doubling back to try and catch her from behind."

"Kay, cya." and suddenly Mizore seemed to wink out of existance.

"Damn, I hate it when she does that, it´s creepy. I mean I can still sense her but..." Akiko shrugged as if shaking something off.

"I think it´s pretty neat actually." Sakura replied with a thin smile. Wishing she could do it like that herself.

* * *

-*o*-

"He´s doubling back!" Hinata was keeping her eyes active and following the intruder constantly, she quickly started moving, dragging Naruto with her.

"What´bout Ino and Chouji?"

"None of them have reached the guardposts yet but it should only take a few minutes more."

"Right, so lets see if we can box him in until then."

* * *

-*o*-

Kiba and Sasuke were slowly and cautiously following the trail of glowing markers Nana had left, neatly set so they would only be visible from a fairly narrow direction.

At a minimally quiet growl from Akamaru, Kiba was instantly still as a statue with Sasuke imitating him barely a moment later.

* * *

-*o*-

The intruder had moved first sideways while arcing backwards, then further backwards, he could still very faintly hear the same breathing as before if he focused hard on it and the area it seemed to be coming from, but he was still utterly failing in getting a clear direction or distance to it.

But now he was almost certain, whoever it was, WAS stalking him. And doing so in a way he apparently didn´t know about. He could see nothing no matter how he looked, he could hear the stalker breathing slightly and he thought he was able to just barely smell... her? And that was another thing that was just wrong, what kind of kunoichi would let herself be detectable, if ever so minimally through scent while being so capable of avoiding detection otherwise. But neither those nor his chakra detection seemed able to do more than tell him she was nearby. It was most disturbing.

He made a new decision, and started moving back towards his chosen exit point, almost a km from where he entered the village.

Only to stop just a minute later. Sensing someone ahead, inline with the way he came in, he looked around and was not pleased when he spotted a small but clearly visible softly glowing patch, right on his trail in the other direction. Straining a bit he could just barely make out another one further away.

"Ooh I´m so distraught that you noticed me ratboy, you know it´s really not nice to sneak around like this in other peoples towns." a girls voice said clearly nearby. Far closer than anyone should be able to get before he noticed them.

He whipped his head around towards where the voice came from and just barely saw... something, move. But he wasn´t even sure in what direction it had moved. A little piece of darkness had just seemed to melt into another shadow. '_And what the hell was that about, -ratboy-?_'

Trying to figure out where whoever it was had gone he remained completely still, unfocusing his eyes while boosting his senses as much as he dared, trying to see through the very dim light of the summernight. Meanwhile his chakra sense was picking up something more.

He see´s something shimmer and then suddenly is looking not quite right at a young girl, standing far away enough that he can´t attack easily, for a moment he thinks he has found his stalker.

Until she takes something out of her mouth with one hand and speaks that is "Hi, mind giving up?" the soft, almost bored tone is definitely not the same as earlier.

Which means he´s getting tracked by at least two people minimum, more likely a team, and based on the two he had seen so far, dangerously skilled at stealth. Yet there´s still no alarm given. Without a moments hesitation he moves quickly away, barely a dozen steps away he´s startled when a shadow seem to step out towards him, he easily avoids it but is startled again a moment later when two boys appear from the side, clearly intent on giving chase.

A moment later when he lands on a roof and looks back he sees another two girls appearing on his other side, still fortunately behind him. While running and jumping, looking back he finds that one of the boys is catching up, dangerously quickly.

Another few jumps later he curses, he thought he was outmaneuvering the closest boy, and now he finds that he was intentionally moving straight, solely to get ahead of him.

At this point he also notices that the boy has a puppy on his head and curses quietly a lot more as only an Inuzuka would move around like that, and any Inuzuka is serious trouble for any attempts at covert action.

He is about to turn away from that boy when he realises that the one that was with the Inuzuka, has almost caught up on his left flank.

Taking a chance he throws several smoke bombs around him and then drastically changes direction. An annoyed *growf* is heard from the puppy as it is exposed to the strongly scented smoke bombs.

While trying to circle backwards away from the Inuzuka he suddenly realises that reversing wasn´t a great idea, seeing first two girls coming and then a third, the second one to talk earlier, appear and a moment later shoot a small icicle at him. Dodging it is fairly easy but he also sees the shadows come alive and move towards him from the side and has to dodge again.

_'Damnit how many are there!? No reason to try keeping up stealth any longer with this many already tracking me.'_

Spinning around he easily evades another not quite visible strike and simply strikes back as close to the center of what he can see as possible. *ooof*

He´s somewhat surprised at seeing a skinny girl appear as if by magic, tumbling away from him, both from his strike but also adding extra spin to herself to get further away.

While she´s still rolling he see´s her doing a quick handseal and suddenly she´s like a part of the surrounding shadows again.

He keeps moving, see´s the other boy and quickly performs several throws.

Seeing the boy avoiding skillfully but not block anything is surprising, but then it´s time for the boy to be surprised, as the exploding tags that he seeded with the kunai he used goes off shortly behind the boy, throwing him forward and sideways, perfectly out of his way.

If there was anyone nearby not aware of the intrusion, that was now in the past.

He speeds off again, once more aiming for one of his exit points, now no longer with a choice. He barely gets another hundred meters before he finds himself looking at another problem.

A boy in black and orange and a girl in a thick creamcoloured jacket.

And both of them in dozens. And then he notices that the girl is a Hyuuga and curses his bad luck, a lot of that going around right now. _'Now, the question is, useful clones of some sort or just bunshin fakes?'_

Using his chakra sense for a moment he came to the not so nice conclusion that the whole lot was obviously real, shadow clones apparently as he could sense no elements in them. Nor, unfortunately could he tell which was real and which was not.

_'ANBU will be here soon, no choice but to get more serious now.'_

And so he quickly goes to work, carving a path through the clones, launching kunai with or without explosive tags in large numbers while rapidly knocking apart all clones nearby himself, although being very wary of the Hyuuga girl clones. Until he realised that all of them fought the same way.

_'Someone´s trying to be sneaky, just one person making the clones, then using henge on half of them, neat.'_ he thought with a kind of detatched professional respect.

Whoever did them was decently skilled, but the intruder was a taijutsu expert and made quick work of two dozen. Weaving one way and then another straight through the thick of it.

Then suddenly instead of disappearing, the one he had hit shouted out in pain and fell back, and suddenly the clones went up in smoke, leaving the real Hyuuga girl as his only obstacle.

At this point however, he had realised that everyone he had seen were just kids, and they didn´t have any village-badge either which made him realise it was probably the group of kids he had seen earlier. Shinobis in training rather than the real thing. Once again he cursed himself for not getting a chance to notice sooner, he could probably have taken out any single one of them with blatant ease, and probably even several together without any real trouble. **If** he had tried, instead of trying to avoid too much exposure.

Seeing the kid on the ground apparently having been knocked out, taking it much more calmly while trying to get his breath back to prepare for dashing straight to his exit point he moved against the girl. At which point he noticed that she was very pissed off.

"You do NOT hurt my friends!"

"Run home with him if you want, but you better get out of my way little girl."

"M-make me!"

He startled for a tiny moment at hearing the stutter in her angry voice but then threw a few more kunai followed by swift movement into close range, he knew it wasn´t the best idea to get close to a Hyuuga, but she was clearly inexperienced, and he was doubtlessly far more powerful, he even knew very well how to fight against a Jyuuken user, and he had to get past her as straight as possible to get away before the others caught up again.

She easily deflected the thrown weapons, two of them she even returned right back at his face, forcing him to evade and slow down his approach. And then he hit her with a serious strike against her shoulder. And got a silly look on his face for a moment when she merely grimaced badly as she was thrown backwards from the massive force.

Her shoulder seeming to glow slightly for a moment. It was obvious to his chakra sense, that she had somehow diverted a huge part of the force by using a big chunk of chakra somehow. That was not a use for it he had known about before, not like that at least, the reaction looked more like a thin armour of watery, flowing chakra than a chakrablock.

Quickly reevaluating the situation he tried to move past her before she was up again and got a nasty smack against his side for his troubles, the severe pain almost made him double up and fall, but he managed to turn it into a sideways roll instead. _'Damn girl doesn´t fight like a Hyuuga at all!'_

Getting back up and instantly starting on a series of faster strikes, trying to get past whatever defense she was using while expertly avoiding her return swipes. So charged with chakra that he could see them clearly, they actually lit up a few meters like a torch. He had seen Hyuuga fight before, this was not even close to normal even for the most odd among them.

And in a matter of only a few seconds he had just enough time to realise that she was causing him to hurt without actually even fully connecting with her strikes, he knew how to fight against a Jyuuken user alright, but as he tried to compensate to this odd variation he found himself going mentally *ouch* repeatedly while unable to hit the girl in return even once. The chakra charges she used extended her range too much and made her strikes too dangerous for him to handle it by just a moment of improvisation.

And then he realised he had taken too long. The Inuzuka appeared on one side, looking like he was trying to sneeze and the puppy somehow managing to look sick despite the lack of light. Barely a moment later the other boy turned up from the other side, and once again he cursed his terrible luck, facing a Hyuuga or Inuzuka alone was bad enough by far, but adding the Uchiha to the mix was an absolutely terrible deal for him.

"You have no chance, the ANBU we sent for will be here any time now, surrender." the Uchiha smirked as he said it.

The intruder was just about to do his final duty and suicide to avoid capture, when he realised that again he had let himself be distracted a moment too much and felt the massive pain from the Hyuuga girl´s strike for a moment, this time in a much more unpleasant place, before he became unconscious.

She barely checked that he was indeed out, then she rushed over to Naruto who was still not moving.

Quickly finding that at least he was breathing and had a pulse she cautiously turned him over, seeing a nasty looking wound on the side of the head bleeding too much for comfort and a massive bruise where his arm had been hit so severely that the clothing had been torn away, just from the raw force of the blow.

"SAKURA!" the girls that had been outpaced started arriving only seconds later, Mizore popped up next to the intruder, carefully making some ice shackles on him and giving him a hint of hypothermia just by a touch, a slightly winded Sakura ran up to Naruto while still wincing at Hinatas shout and began looking him over. Much to Hinata´s obvious relief.

A moment later Hinata noticed the absence of the last two "W-Where´s Nana and Akiko?"

While continuing to examine Naruto, Sakura answered "Nana took a nasty hit back there, Akiko is treating her as much as she can, she was too tired from using her chakra sense so intensely for so long to keep running much anyway."

"Oh, not b-bad is it?"

"Nana, no it didn´t seem too bad, painful for a week or two but not bad, probably a few days at hospital, it was only a barely glancing hit. Naruto will definitely need a trip to the hospital though, he took a bad knock on the head when he landed I think, and his arm was dangerously close to being broken. But nothing critical. And the way he heals it shouldn´t take long."

Hinata winced "Yeah, that guy hit really hard." then finally relaxed at hearing that Naruto wasn´t in serious danger.

Sakura looked up with new worry visible in her eyes "You didn´t get hit did you?"

"I managed the chakra layer thing just in time, b-but I´m probably g-going to have a serious bruise where he h-hit me anyway."

"Ok." Sakura said with relief, then with a mischievous smirk added "Guess Naruto and Nana ends up sharing a room at the hospital."

Hinata giggled at the thought "Oh dear, poor hospital..."

"Now..." Sakura motioned.

"Oh, right." Hinata turned enough that Sakura could examine her shoulder.

Aftera long moment "Well, it seems you will be joining the prank duo for a few days in hospital. At least there will be someone there to make sure the hospital still stands afterwards."

"W-what?"

"Use your eyes to check the upper ribs on that side."

"The ribs? but... Oh..."

"He hit you something like this right?" Sakura did a slowmotion move.

Hinata winced and nodded "I see what you mean, I prepared the layer against a mostly horizontal strike, but with that much downwards force in it, it was far too uneven to stop it, no wonder it felt so b-bad, and then I only checked the shoulder itself..." she grimaced and felt a bit faint. A simple mistake, but it could have had very serious consequences.

"Yeah, without the layer you would have at least 2 or 3 badly broken ribs, without those high protection clothes of yours, you might have died from it."

.

There would be no newsfrom Konoha coming for Orochimaru for a while longer.

* * *

-*o*-

"So?" Kurenai asked.

The old doctor´s answer came without hesitation "Nothing to worry about, but all three were fortunate in their own ways, Nana only took a barely glancing hit, Hinata was merely -close- to having her ribs seriously injured while Naruto´s worst part was the bump on the head he got when he was knocked down, and that´s going to be fine in a day or two, no concussion. Was a bit unlucky of him to get knocked out by it really, but from what they told me it seems this shinobi had a very powerful punch. And someone less sturdy would probably have had a broken shoulder at minimum."

"Well that´s good then I guess... How long?"

"Three days for all of them, Naruto wont really need to stay that long but he could use some time to cool down a bit."

They shared a short chuckle at that.

.

Kurenai checked that, yes, all involved were gathered in the hospital room that was currently hosting her apprentices and Nana in a bed each, then doublechecked that the privacy warding she had done on the room was working properly.

"Listen up..." she waited for the various talking to stop "The hokage will meet all of you individually tomorrow, right now he wanted me to tell you all, good work! Even the most secure village can be infiltrated, and any time it is prevented is a major success because of how few shinobi are capable of doing it with difficult targets like here, and because of what can be learned from it."

She continued "All of you will be awarded a single day worth of a B-rank mission due to the level of this intruder, and you will keep quiet about it, not -only talk with friends- or anything, just dont talk about it until we tell you it´s fine to do so. Well planned and pretty good overall."

.

An hour later, all but the three currently belonging inside the room had finally left, Kurenai had sat down between her apprentices.

"Now then Naruto, want to tell me how you messed up? You managed that barrier of yours well enough in that spar against Sasuke, so why fail so completely now?"

Naruto frowned "Sorry sensei, it was a very stupid mistake, I never even tried using it. I was trying to focus on learning how he fought from what I got from the clones he knocked out, and then he suddenly turned and went the other way, I know surprise is the best weapon and most dangerous thing you can let an enemy have, but sadly, he totally caught me off guard with that, I thought he was going on ahead so he could get past the clones..."

"Hmm, while I certainly do promote thinking, maybe not go -too- far?" Kurenai said with a half smile.

"Right, never think while fighting again!" Naruto grinned at the pained expression Kurenai showed and the two very audible groans from the nearby girls.

A few minutes later Kurenai turned over towards Nana "Oh, before I forget it, dont worry about the house you used, the couple living there were somewhat annoyed but took the explanation and the reimbursement quite well, but It would probably be good if you went there in person and apologised later, ok?"

"Ok..."

'_Not even an attempt at including an insult, guess she´s more affected than she seemed..._'

* * *

-*o*-

* * *

Techniques used:

Fuuton: Reppushou/Gale Wind Palm:  
A canon jutsu, a decently focused and strong wind technique, only covers a small area, but much stronger for example the wide area but much less focused Daitoppa.

Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu/Great Fireball technique:  
A canon jutsu that anyone reading should already know, even if it´s just from how I used it in this chapter.

Raiton: Tanraku/Short Circuit:  
The user creates special chakra strings from one of his hands, to a earthed metal object then onwards either to additional objects in serial and then back to the users other hand. Anything touching the strings when active gets enough of an electric shock to go unconscious. Someone touching the effect for only a very short moment wont be happy about it but will most likely be able to keep going, although it can also cause numb limbs.

Kage bunshin:  
Creates pseudosolid clones of the user that can do a lot of things, they can´t take damage though and their chakra is limited.

Kage bunshin shuriken jutsu/Shadow Clone Shuriken:  
Works like the kage bunshin but instead of copying the user, it creates a number of chakra constructs based on a preset shape, in this case a shuriken.

Uzumaki Bakuhatsu/Uzumaki explosion  
Creates a small ball of extremely chaotic chakra, the instant the chakra is no longer contained by the ball itself, it explodes. Not very powerful, but a direct hit would be a major ouchy. Not for a low chakra person to use.

Uzumaki bougyo/Uzumaki Defense(never actually named since it is an instant creation):  
Creates a barrier of chakra, can stop a lot things as long as the user noticed an incoming attack and doesn´t botch.

Bakuhatsu bougyo/exploding defense:  
Combines the chakrabarrier with the chakra explosion by creating multiple layers to make sure the explosion goes away from the user only.

Unnamed Raiton stunning technique:  
Essentially a very simply "let me hold a small charge of electricity in my hand for a while without electrocuting myself", easy to make and easy to use, wont really cause damage but any normal person will be out cold from a direct hit in the right place.

-*o*-

AN:

Took a while to get started with the missing parts in this chapter but it got done in the end! The first fight also gives some hints on how Naruto fights in my version of him.

Anyone recognise where the chapter title is from? A virtual cookie to anyone that can tell. Hint, it´s from the start of a game where you infiltrate a base. Probably one of the first games I ever heard digitised speech in. The kind of platform and puzzle game that nowadays seem quite extinct unfortunately.


	16. Life was good

Sorry for the delay but the world really did all it could to keep me from getting things done recently. Still not nearly as good as I wanted it, but oh well.

-*o*-

* * *

**-Life was good-**

-*o*-

"Hello Hinata!"

Hinata jumped more than a little, having been too focused elsewhere "Don´t s-sneak up on m-me like t-that S-Sakura!"

"You, with the allseeing eyes didn´t see me walk straight up to you with no sneaking at all involved?" seeing Hinata get flustered Sakura added "Sorry, just teasing. So what kept you so spaced out?"

"Trying to improve my layer, e-especially control of the outer chakraflow I use for attacks, it felt much t-too inflexible and... strained, in that fight... and... I was too slow a-and inaccurate with it to deflect the attack that injured me..." Hinata winced somewhat as she could still feel the shoulder and would have to be a bit careful with it at least another week.

"Ah, well I bet it felt like that because of how you used your strikes without touching him, I thought that was required..."

"... I -do- have to touch to use my chakrastrikes..." Hinata said uncertainly.

"I only saw a little of it from a distance, but Sasuke says you hit him from over a foot of distance at least once, and over half your strikes came without touching."

"I don´t remember doing that? I, I CANT do that?"

Sakura smiled "You were too busy worrying about Naruto, but you really -can- do it, because you did."

Hinata closed her eyes to try and focus on remembering, after a while she opened her eyes again "It seems I really did..."

* * *

-*o*-

Naruto was having a big problem... It was getting harder and harder not only to successfully prank Nana, but just figuring out a good prank was becoming far too difficult. She took things much too easily for a lot of his usual ideas to work.

As he was slowly walking and trying to think of something good enough, she had really gotten one over him last week and it was annoying him. That was when he spotted a trio of kids, one of which was almost clinging on an older shinobi, clearly trying to convince him of something.

The clinging part, that gave Naruto an interesting idea, he like almost everyone else involved with the academy knew that Nana had a very enthusiastic tendency to sneak into bars, nightclubs and especially any kind of party involving adults, and preferably adult themes.

The theme was obvious, but from what else he had seen he made a little mental leap of deduction... He waited until the older shinobi had left and then approached the kids "Hi, having trouble with your teacher?"

The formerly clinging kid replied sullenly "Stupid Ebisu, always lecturing about learning -the basics- first, he never gets around to anything beyond -first-!"

Naruto smiled, this was perfect, his inclination was to help the kids a bit either way, but they would be perfect for helping him prank Nana, and he was fairly sure they would just find it funny, so they could help each other, excellent!

.

The next day during lunch, Nana was just about to sit down and eat at one of the tables on the academy grounds when she heard people running towards her, obviously from the footsteps they were not trained ninja so she was casual about turning around and looking, because of this she had almost no warning before three noticeably younger kids threw themselves at her.

"Daaarling!" Konohamaru shouted as he hugged the older girl tightly, putting his face neatly attached to the middle of her chest and nuzzling in deeply between her quite noticeable breasts.

"Take me I´m yours my honey!" a rather daring Moegi shouted as she clung onto Nana from the side with a steelgrip hug.

What truly finished Nana off however was when a moment later, Udon jumped to the ground, hugging her legs and crying out "Mommy!"

There was quite a few people in Konoha that wondered if wolves had somehow managed to get into the village, the loud, agonised howl during lunchhour had been most disturbing.

Those who were closer at the time had no such illusions, as Naruto´s almost manic laughter was very distinctly heard barely a moment later.

* * *

-*o*-

"Sensei?"

"Ah, Nai-chan my dear girl! You look as lovely as always. Still no desire for a quickie in bed with an old man I guess?"

Kurenai smiled wryly as the man hobbled through the room to her, giving her a small and considering what he just said, extremely chaste hug then sat down at the kitchen table and waiting for her to also be seated.

"I think I will pass, you´re not quite my type sensei... How are you doing?"

He chuckled a bit "Ah, as usual, well enough... They´ve even added one more category for me to keep proper in the archives, apparently at least someone stopped to think for a moment so it´s the section next to the one I already had. Running around is hell on the leg even with the best fake foot one can get these days."

Kurenai was, as usual, ambivalent about meeting her old sensei, he was a lovely man, nice and smart, but the fact that she had been the only one to survive the fight that killed her two teammates without permanent injuries, no matter how well aware she was that it wasn´t her fault that her sensei lost a foot, an eye, almost the second eye as well as getting one hand half useless, as always it made her feel unhappy, with herself and the world in general, every time they met.

But she still wouldn´t stop visiting him no matter what. He was also one of her friends. At least now it was not nearly as bad. And fortunately he had always understood the issue.

"I bet you couldn´t guess how much paperwork you´ve caused though..."

"Hmm?"

"In the new section I´m handling, there´s a bundle, mostly surrounding that silly buggar stunt someone pulled the other year."

Kurenai looked up with a lot more interest "What, you mean those civillian trader clans?"

He nodded with a surprising degree of gravitude "Take caution Nai-chan, the descriptions and phrasing used in several of those documents are suggestive and most certainly questionable, and not in your favour."

* * *

-*o*-

Orochimaru looked around more thoroughly, still keeping his gaze inconspicious to avoid alarming the large number of shinobi around him. He had been in Iwagakure before certainly, but never before like this, with as much time to spare as he chose.

He was amused by the fact that the trio in Konoha thought that -they- were using -him- for this task, the fact that he would be the contact meant that when things happened, he would be the one that could pull strings as he wanted.

He was also at the same time both content and rather annoyed with the body he currently used, his improved transfer technique had been a success, except that the first body he had used it on had had an inherent flaw that after less than two years suddenly forced him to change again, with only a few days warning he had not been able to get one of his preferred bodies.

And so he was now using a body without any special bloodlines at all, no special modifications or interesting abilities beyond those he brought with him. The woman he had picked was a good, strong fighter, decent with just about all sides of ninjutsu and had a massive amount of chakra, all very good.

But it still annoyed him to be without any of the extra abilities he had grown used to, or the marvellous bloodline abilities his previous body had provided him with. And with the latest switch he had found that his improved transfer technique had a downside, it gave him the ability to keep a body for at least a decade, and that was just his absolute minimum expected timeline, but it came at the cost of the body naturally preferring to stay in its original shape, causing some problems with getting used to it as well as some inconsistencies when he used some ninjutsu techniques.

The advantages still greatly outweighed the downsides, although the addition of a minimum time before he could switch bodies again was something he needed to fix in case it became necessary. And only taking his own shape as if it was an advanced transformation that had to be maintained by chakra and even then he was still far from being able to do it constantly, this was annoying by itself.

Really, except for the lack of special abilities there was nothing truly or critically wrong with his current body at all as far as a shinobi should need to care. What really caused most of his annoyance was that he had a bad case of PMS. For a shinobi, it would normally be no problem at all, kunoichi had long since figured out techniques to make such an issue irrelevant, and the woman whose body he now used had indeed known a very good technique for this purpose and even known it to perfection.

And Orochimaru now had her knowledge and in theory should be able to use it just as well. Except that the small disjointedness he experienced was more pronounced in some cases, and this was one of them. His mind was completely male, and trying to deal with a technique directly and in detail affecting a female body that he inhabited just didn´t work well, not yet at least.

He had already placed it high on his agenda to fix, right above his need to be able to maintain his own shape without limitations. He already knew how to deal with the latter, it was just going to take some time to develop it. The former could be seen as much less important, but it was in fact more, as in the future he may require to make full use of a host´s personal talents, and anything that might prevent that was something he needed fixed ASAP.

He sighed again at the effort it took to keep himself somewhere near normal and continued his slow walk through the Iwa village, his amusement soon coming back to the front of his thoughts _'So, they think to use this village as a diversion? I´m sure I can use it in a far more, interesting way...'_ His mental chuckling didn´t quite reach the level of -Evil Overlord- manic laughter but probably got at least somewhere halfway there.

Playing errand boy for someone else didn´t bother Orochimaru even the slightest. Not as long as he could use it for his own advantage at least. With a slightly strained smile, he walked on to find his objective. He did have time, but he still had many more interesting projects to work further on, so delaying too much he would not.

Things were far from perfect, but overall, despite certain major annoyances, life was good.

* * *

-*o*-

"So, how is it going Sakura?" Kurenai asked as she came to check on the girl.

Sakura grimaced a little then moved the short sword back and carefully sheathed it and sighed "It still feels uncomfortable with anything larger than a kunai, although this kind of sword is much better at least."

"Mmm, I hope you get used to it, because you really need something to offset your disadvantage in speed. Wires and that chakra scalpel you´re working on will help a lot, but even a short sword would give you far more."

"Well, I think I´m getting somewhere with it at least, the one´s I´ve practised with before and at the academy felt nothing but plain and complete awkward. Something like this, I´m certainly getting used to it at least, even if slowly."

"Good. I know your mother is a noncombat shinobi but didn´t she show you any speedtraining at all?"

"No... I don´t think she even knows any."

"No wonder you had such a hard time getting faster then, at least you have improved a lot, however with your highend chakra control, you could learn to do very good chakra edges on a sword, like this." Kurenai focused a moment, followed by a couple of hand seals, after which the sword she was holding sported a thin bluish extention from the edge.

After making sure Sakura had seen enough, she brought out an old, overused kunai and very slowly cut straight through it with the enhanced blade. The strain on the chakra edge was visible, but it cut through. Kurenai´s face also showing a hint of strain.

"Oohh, I´ve never seen anything that good before, and I´ve never seen you use it?"

"My control isn´t good enough for me to form it and maintain it in combat, and in training it´s just too dangerous, so it´s mostly useless for me, except if I need to cut through something while I have time and outside of combat or stress. Wind chakra would be even better at this, mostly because then the edge is automatically sharp and much easier to maintain."

"And you think I can do that in combat?"

"Without doubt, your control is the best I´ve ever seen, you were exceptional even when you began training with me, now though, now you have gone far beyond even that."

* * *

-*o*-

On a practise field on the outskirts of Konoha, team 11 had just started another training session, Gai and Lee was already doing their usual -not quite deadly- sparring nearby and Neji was waiting for Tenten to start a fullout weapons assault against him, giving her practise with attacks and him with defense, mostly at least.

It was somewhat more troublesome to reverse the roles due to how their specialities didn´t match well, but eventually, Gai had found that he could talk Sasuke into playing the attacker to give Tenten defensive practise while he and sometimes also Lee were decent targets to allow Neji some serious offensive practise.

Neji was wondering why she was taking so long however, she actually seemed to be hesitating.

He was just about to ask if something was wrong when instead of doing her usual routine, she put her hands together in a single, simple hand seal and spoke up with determination "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" and three copies of her appeared.

Neji had startled a little at the sight, that was certainly not a regular skill genin learned, and he also realised that he was probably going to get a more serious workout than usual.

Tenten and her clones seemed to strain slightly for a moment, then they jumped apart, weapons started flying his way from almost everwhere at once and Neji had to start dodging better than ever before, repeatedly during the following ten minutes he was forced to resort to the Kaiten or get swamped by the attacks, which very fortunately were practise weapons as he had still taken a quite impressive multitude of mostly glancing hits.

He also got his one main question answered, the weapons the clones used on their own were real enough, they dispelled the moment after they hit something, but they lasted long enough for them to be plenty useful as weapons. Though they obviously didn´t have all that many since Tenten repeatedly let them have weapons from her. Which was the only reason he could keep track of which one was the real Tenten.

He finally signalled a halt to the practise, Tenten dispelled the clones and walked over to him, he noticed she was quite a bit tired, but he knew he was a damn lot worse, not quite exhausted but far too close.

He spoke up, slightly out of breath "That... Was impressive... Tenten... Would you have been able to keep it up... another ten minutes at that rate?"

"Probably, though i might need another weapon seal scroll, maybe even several, or a much, much more tightly packed one to be sure since the sealed weapons are not cloned."

"I see, I wondered why they did not attack as often and why you sometimes threw weapons to them..."

"I´m trying to learn the Kage bunshin shuriken technique as well, then only my chakra would be the limit, and that´s what I have the reserve seal for. Really wish I was capable of copying Kaori´s weapon seals though, would be great to have at least some of the weapons return automatically. Why do you ask?"

"If you could... keep it up long enough... you might be able to defeat me by sheer exhaustion, though you would have to be able to stay away from my attacks as well obviously."

Tenten was silent for a moment, looked at him closer "I really managed to tire you that much?"

"Yes, thank you it was... a superb workout. Noone has managed to pressure me that well before I think, not even Gai." that certainly got Tenten to go wideyed, Gai was an unstoppable force of nature, and Neji would never ever lie about training, she had actually managed to go beyond Gai in something? The very concept felt alien and incomprehensible. And damned cool!

* * *

-*o*-

Naruto held out his hand, Akiko took it and let him help her back up, she winced and held her other hand over the large bruising she had taken on her right thigh, Naruto shook his head "I just can´t understand how you can manage it..."

Absently she asked "What?" while with some difficulty she started to slowly heal the painful bruise.

"You´re totally amazing when you move through an obstacle course, you can do acrobatics that I couldn´t even dream about, and then you´re... You´re actually clumsy with taijutsu, and not just a little either, it just don´t make no sense Aki-chan..."

Akiko grumbled, for more than one reason "I´m getting a damned lot better." the only reason she didn´t give the most annoying boy ever a knock on the head was because at least he had also said something nice, and because he was pretty much right, unfortunately.

"You sure is! But couldn´t you like, move like when you do acrobatics instead? Sometimes it almost looks like fighting I mean?"

*hmmm* "By the way Naruto, why are you wearing that old fashion disaster again?"

Naruto looked down on himself a moment, then looked rather unhappy "Aaww, I like this orange!"

"Most of the world have noticed that already, the orange and black combination you´ve used most of the time still have orange and actually looks good, and most other combinations you´ve used, even that strange orange and blue thing was passable, but that overall makes you look like some strange overripe fruit or something."

Naruto cringed slightly at the description and then sighed deeply.

* * *

-*o*-

Kurenai noticed Sakura wince quite badly after practising, walked over and noticed her hands being quite badly bashed up "Sakura, what happened with your hands?"

"Yesterday I practised, trying to make the cherry blossom strike work properly, and the few times I did, the impact exploded back at me enough to hurt my hands."

"Oh damn, I´m sorry Sakura I should have thought of that, we need to get you a pair of high quality gloves before you train that any more."

Sakura blinked in surprise "Ah... I thought you were meant to just get used to it, since it´s almost just medic-nins that can use it after all, well it´s not that hard to heal, there just wasn´t enough time for me before tonights practise, so the cuts opened up again."

"Tomorrow after academy ends for the day, alright? And remind me to get Akiko some as well, even if she wont need them just yet, she will soon enough probably."

* * *

-*o*-

"What is it Ten-chan?"

Tenten looked up at the approaching Hinata from the scroll she had been looking at "This, this scroll of Minato´s looks really interesting, it´s..."

Hinata smiled "So good you´re speechless?"

"You remember that E-rank wind-jutsu you can use to give extra speed to something thrown?"

Hinata nodded slowly "Mmm, fairly good but very troublesome to use well since it takes some time to perform it."

"This is almost infinitely better. It requires both a seal and a technique when used, but the seal means the technique is reasonably fast when you actually activate it."

"So, what is it?"

"You choose how to activate it when you throw whatever the seal is on, first how far it travels before activation, at that point how far it teleports, and how much further along its trajectory it reappears, you can then also choose what direction it will appear pointed in and the direction of all present kinetic energy and add a bit of additional energy based on how good control you managed when throwing."

Hinata stood very still for a long moment "... Y-you mean you can throw it through w-walls or around corners?"

"Uh-huh, that´s exactly what I mean!" the smile on Tenten could almost be called an evil grin, and her eyes could certainly be said to be shining.

Hinata started giggling, after a moment Tenten blinked and went "Eh?" as she looked over at Hinata.

"Y-you looked l-like someone with a new f-favorite toy or something, the best new toy in the world..."

"Erhm..."

"You did."

"Oh alright, but it´s a really cool technique right? I bet this one even Naruto would consider really cool. Just a pity it´s not an easy one."

"Mmm, I´m sure you and Sakura will make it work soon." Hinata looked around thoughtfully "It sounds a little like a simplified, reverse Hiraishin don´t you think?"

Tenten blinked several times, the thought had not crossed her mind for even the slightest moment "... The teleport is with the seal instead of -to- the seal, with an unusually high level of control... Sometimes you really amaze me Hinata, if you´re right this could be what Minato developed it from, or maybe the other way around... Oh that would be so great!" a moment later with a grin she added "And sooo cool." in an almost imitation of Naruto, making Hinata laugh.

"Heh, now that I think about it, this should be perfect for you Hinata."

"Hmm?"

"You said it yourself, through walls and around corners, how many people can actually make such a throw while also seeing what they aim for?"

Hinata went wideeyed. That was an extremely good point. If they could make it work at least.

* * *

-*o*-

Kurenai had brought Sakura with her to a store specialised in the less common sorts of supplies and Sakura now had three pairs of very special gloves, thin with extremely minimal impact on chakra and touch sense and yet still comparatively very resistant to physical damage.

As a sort of apology for forgetting to take care of it before Sakura had hurt her hands, Kurenai had taken her with her to a nice restaurant and while eating they had chatted along about various things, Kurenai realised that it was probably the first time she had a chance to talk with Sakura alone and without being under any kind of schedule or pressure and made a mental note to make sure not to forget to do it again, she was planning on having her as part of her genin-team after all.

And the fact that Sakura was both good and insightful with genjutsu, not to mention overall smart gave them plenty of things to talk about, she found it quite interesting, even very nice. It was not that a common combination after all.

"You planned from the start to make a team out of the three of us, right?" Sakura suddenly asked, jumping radically from a completely different subject.

Kurenai took a moment before she replied "Yes I did. Are you unhappy about it Sakura?"

"No... Not really, and even if I might have been a little once, not anymore. I did pretty much guess it from the start anyway so if anything I was playing along willingly."

"Was I that transparent?" Kurenai asked with a little smile.

"Not really, I... I just got the feeling that while you were serious, you seemed to... be serious about more than one thing if you get what I mean... And I really thought it was going to be bad to have to be around Naruto, so I sort of weighed that against being able to improve as much as you said would be possible... And then... Well Naruto is definitely an annoying moron, but he´s also kinda nice and... and Hinata has become my second best friend you know..."

Kurenai gave a hint of a laugh, getting Sakura to look up at her "You know, you don´t have to start taking after Hinata to be her friend." Sakura *huh* then realised how her speech had gone more and more quiet, getting close to the edge of even a little stutter and she had looked down as if she was shy, a moment later she giggled.

A bit later Kurenai remembered to ask "So, how far -have- you gotten with the cherry blossom strike? I assume you´re nowhere near being skilled in it yet, from what I´ve been told it usually takes years to learn it well."

"I can´t strike through stone, metal or anything like that yet, but i can make a halfmeter wide crater in dirt or sandy ground, based on the scroll you gave me to practise from, I think I can learn it fully in another half year if I have enough time to practise. Mastering it will take longer but I think I can do it in less than a year or two, I already have the needed control after all."

"Quite impressive."

Sakura smiled at the praise.

"So how goes your chasing of the elusive Uchiha nowadays then?" Kurenai asked with a friendly smile.

Sakura gave a hint of a blush "Ehm, well I... Not as good as I would like? At least he sees me now that I can give him a decent fight."

"How well...?"

"For every win I manage, I loose at least 3 maybe 4 times..." Sakura sighed, definitely not easy to even reach such a ratio "And I manage over half the wins from when sparring has specific limits added, he doesn´t handle that nearly as well as I do."

"Most people don´t."

"What´s really annoying though, I just can´t seem to ever beat Ino." Sakura frowned, this was a longstanding thorn in her side. No matter how much they were friends, they were also still very much rivals, even more so since they had reconciled their differences over chasing Sasuke.

"Even though you have trained much more in total, she has focused more on a few areas, taijutsu among them... If you fight only with genjutsu, you win easily instead, ninjutsu is probably a coin toss since you both have decent abilities there. However, if you were to fight with everything you have, I´m fairly certain that you would win."

"Really?" Sakura smiled even more brightly at that. _'Hah! Take that Ino!'_

* * *

-*o*-

"Aaw come on nee-chan, can´t you at least show me how you do it?" Hanabi almost whined, which was not usual.

"Y-you understand that it is part of why f-father doesn´t like me? A-and that it may be impossible for you to do it?"

Hanabi squirmed a bit uncomfortably "It´s not that he dislikes you, it´s... He´s embarassed..." she ended looking down with a scowl.

That was far more than Hinata would ever have thought she could find out, and it took almost no time for her to understand what her sister had meant, and knowing or at least hearing that her sister thought their father still cared for her, that was good, but at the same time, having confirmation for why she kept being called a failure by the clan, bad, extremely bad. She was mostly over it by now, but she still felt it when it was brought up.

She sighed and after getting herself together again she thought _'Oh well, there´s no harm in showing her...' _while in the back of her mind she silently thanked Sakura for trying to help her develop the ability to handle things with a more professional and detached persona.

"Ok then Firey-chan, I´ll show you and we can see if you can do it at all." the smile she got from Hanabi, extra wide after she used Naruto´s nickname for her, made the whole world seem alright again.

.

An hour later, Naruto appeared from within the house "Ooh look at that! Hello my two nicest ladies in the world!" the primarily intended target for the overdone greeting giggled and had to break off what she was doing, Naruto actually worried for a moment as Hinata however blushed severely.

Hanabi cheerily grinned at him "Hi Naruto, look at us!"

Uncertain what she meant he looked between them a few times "You learned Hinata´s chakralayer!" he turned over to Hinata "I didn´t know you had trained her in that?"

"N-not u-until t-today." she took a more relaxed breath "She learned the basics r-really fast."

"Wow, well done Firey-chan!" after a moment of thought "You´re going to teach her your new style as well right?"

"Ehm, well-"

"If she can learn it, you should teach it, it´s great on its own, but as a complement to the normal Jyuuken I bet it could be darn neat, and it would let you have someone else that can use it that you can discuss it with and-"

Hinata held up a hand to stop the torrent of words as she nodded "I will. I-I just hadn´t thought much about it before she asked me today, b-but she will soon be a shinobi as well so I guess it´s ok."

* * *

-*o*-

* * *

-*o*-

Aftertake13, thank you, good to hear someone liked it. I originally tried to write it from the characters POV, but that really didn´t work well. Eventually I found that focusing on the intruder let the scene become much faster paced and "alive". Part of the scene was actually written over a year before posted, but I doubt anyone can figure out which was old and which was new.

RedEye00, yep, although they´re not even graduates yet, they´re good, that´s what you get from adding an extra 4-12 hours per week of training specifically set up to compliment both their other training, and also their individual skills over the course of a couple of years. And the group had several of those Kurenai expects to lead their teams (the jonin-instructor is supposed to be instructor first of all), and as such has been drilled a bit extra on plans and such. The disabling hit was a simple chakrastrike at the neck to shut down the intruders nerve system.

randumbdave, oh yes it is such a neat game, me and my brother actually competed on who could get the best time on it(very much not easy since the random play area was sometimes literally impossible to complete). A big virtual cookie for you for knowing about it! ^_^

Ryuujin96, she wasn´t really hard on him, and it was more a worry that he might have failed due to freezing up from being in combat. And it was not a matter of being outfought by a more experienced opponent, but failing to even TRY to use his most effective defensive move. Had he merely failed to employ it well enough, it would just be a matter of more practise. Claws would probably be more trouble than useful, due to how both the claws themselves but also the way they are strapped on would restrict how well he could use his hands for other things. Not completely out of the question but not likely.

Manah Scarlet Shadowsong, lol yeah, while it´s not the identically same character, the "heritage" is pretty obvious and I´ve always liked Mizore as well. Not to mention how her character with only some minor twists was perfect for what I needed.

And "Guest", oh yes, they´re a fun little bunch those summons aren´t they...

Next chapter should be the last one before the canon starting point, and it will likely take a while to get done, hopefully not as long as this chapter though. And I did warn from the start that I give no guarantees on any sort of regularity.


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